My Hero Reincarnation
by LinIsSleepy
Summary: Hotaru Ryuuzaki, classmate of Katsuki Bakugou and Izuku Midoriya. Turns out, she has a secret. What's this about Deku dying? And what's this about reincarnation? OC.
1. Sticks and Stones

When I was born the second time, I only knew two things—one, that I had a first life, with friends and love and death, even though all the faces and names were gone. The experiences weren't. The emotions weren't.

Two, there was a story imprinted on my brain. The story of the number one hero of my parents' and my generation. _Deku._

And with that, my last solid memory.

When I was pulled into the light, a screaming, crabbing baby, the last vestiges of that memory seared into my mind.

_There was a villain, and useless me, who had a useless quirk that made me double over in pain, and he threw himself in front of me_—

_Deku died. Too strong, too good, too young. And he died because of _me_._

It wasn't supposed to happen. My genes screamed at me. _No, no, no! He was supposed to live! You weren't supposed to be there!_

_Stop messing with time!_

But it was too late. My presence had killed Deku. But why was I here now, breathing, crying, cooing in a new mother's arms, while he had bled out on top of me moments before?

My quirk breathed, gave one last burst of light, then settled back down, deep inside. Dormant.

* * *

If you've ever thought that you might like to go back and try being an infant again, I don't recommend it. You're blind, more or less. Your limbs are too heavy. You have no bladder control. That should be enough to turn you off of the idea.

Not to mention, even if you're actually an adult in a baby's body, your mental capacity is closer to the baby's. Your brain can only hold what's physically possible, so goodbye any idea that you could try and start out special. Genius baby? Forget it.

So my parents thought I was a normal baby because I was. The memories were broken fragments fraying away to all the new information. Put away, asleep, for another day.

If anything, I was worse off.

"Ne," my papa said. "She's a little overweight, isn't she?"

My mama frowned. "You think? She's just so hungry."

"Stop feeding her, and she'll be less hungry."

When that didn't work, my mama took me to the doctor again.

"She's just hearty." He brushed us off.

So there I was, a non-genius baby with the appetite of a kid.

My mama sighed, hefting me onto her hip. "What are we going to do with you, Hotaru-chan?"

As it turned out, she just raised me like any other child, because a baby being overweight wasn't really that big of a deal unless you made it one.

It was when I started talking that the memories became tangible, followable visions. I could see it again, the great hero falling, bleeding, dying. I started having nightmares. Then I got used to it and they went away, bleeding off into a warm, golden glow in the back of my mind's eye.

Fuck object permanence.

"Hotaru, why are you so fussy?" Papa rubbed the back of his neck. I wondered why he bothered to have kids if he was too old to deal with them, and then it came out of my mouth.

He frowned. "Don't talk to your father that way."

Fuck not having a filter.

* * *

"Daddy." I tugged on his shirt tails from behind his desk, which was strewn with papers. "What's your quirk?"

"Hmm?" He looked over his glasses, setting a paper down so he could scoop me up. "I don't have a quirk." He set me on his lap.

I cocked my head. "You don't?"

He shook his head. "Twenty percent of people don't."

I thought about it, really hard, then blanched. When I was born the first time, everyone had a quirk unless it was stolen—and that wasn't an exaggeration, it was the commonly known statistics.

Which led me to believe something had happened to the gene pool between my two lives, or I was in a time before the quirkless were bred out.

"Do I have a quirk?"

He hummed. "Well, let's see. Most quirks don't awaken until about five or six, and you're only four, so it's possible. Mommy can see through metal—wouldn't that be cool?"

"So cool!" I nodded. "Are you sad you don't have a quirk, Daddy?"

He took his glasses off, rubbing the line on his nose. "Sometimes. When I was your age, I wanted to become a hero. But sometimes things work out differently." He grinned down at me, poking my stomach. "If I had been a hero, I wouldn't have met your mommy at a work conference."

"Woah," I said.

"What about you, Hotaru-chan? Do you want to be a hero?"

I tapped my chin in thought. "Hmm. No. Sounds dangerous."

I just got a second chance at life and I wasn't about to mess it up.

* * *

The next year, I started school. I was excited until I remembered that it meant freedom would be over for the next decade and a half, but I was also bored out of my mind. It wasn't like I could get out of it, anyway. Besides, I needed some hobbies.

Mom walked me to the gates on the first day, taking a picture outside by the school's sign. I grinned wide, showing off my missing front tooth. I didn't believe in the tooth fairy, but I would let Mom have a little fun playing the parent. Wouldn't want her to miss out—I was her first and only.

She had dressed me to the nines with a white shirt, yellow skirt, and matching bows in my hair. Yellow because it matched my eyes, and white because it didn't clash with my saturated royal blue hair.

"Could my son join the picture?"

Mom and I both looked over to see a tall and muscular woman on the sidewalk. She nudged the boy at her legs forward. He looked just like her, a little on the girly side.

"Katsuki, can you please ask the nice girl to take a photo with you by the sign?"

Mom smiled, raising her camera. "Of course. This will be fun to look at when you're older." She motioned him into frame. His mom had to push him closer. When I looked, I caught sight of a shy face. Ash blond with pointy red eyes.

My knees knocked inward, and the back of my skirt suddenly needed my hands to hold it down. "I'm Hotaru," I said. He mumbled, to which I blinked. "What? Say that again?"

"Bakugou," he barked from the corner of his mouth, turning away just as the camera flashed. I blinked at my mom, bleary eyed. That one would definitely be a candid. By the time I had recovered enough to wipe the stupid look off my face, the boy was already back to his mom's side.

The blonde woman smiled at me. "Thanks for that. I wanted a picture, but I don't think I'd get one of him alone."

"No problem." My mom smirked. "I'll send a copy home through the kids when I get these developed."

There were others in line to take their picture by the entrance, so Mom scooted me inside the yard. "Your lunch is in your backpack," she said.

But I was a little distracted. "That was a weird name."

She shrugged. "A little. Ryuuzaki is a weird name, too."

"Bakugou," I hummed as she fixed my jacket collar. "Is that like a book character or something?"

"Since when do you read?" she huffed. "Stop slouching."

There was a mock entrance ceremony for us kids, mostly so we could feel like big kids for starting school, but also so we would know what to expect come later years. Most of us had too much energy to sit still, but our parents sat with us so it was less of a problem.

With the boring stuff out of the way, my mom and dad hugged me and let me head to the classroom.

When I found my room, seats were already assigned and distributed. I was in the front row, which I immediately despised. Mom must have told my sensei that I had the attention span of a pea. Or it was a coincidence—someone had to be in the front. No one was actually seated this long before the bell. You would have thought they hyped these kids on candy, they were bouncing off the walls that much.

I realized then that I didn't know anyone yet, while others clearly had neighborhood kids they were friends with. Didn't expect cliques to form that fast.

Then the blond boy walked in, silent, mouth puckered. I waved. He pointedly looked away, his shy face now twisted in a glare. I dropped back into my seat.

Behind him were other boys—one with his quirk already awakened, since he had a pair of wings on his back. Hard for those to pop up randomly at age five. They followed the boy like groupies.

"Kacchan—wait up!" A freckled kid popped in through the door after them. "We're in the same class. Isn't that great?"

Instead of ignoring him like he did me, the blond boy scowled. "Don't get in my way, loser."

I balked at the rudeness, then stood up determinedly at my desk. "Oi—Bakugou—who died and made you king?"

By now other kids were watching, falling quiet. I stood my ground and he stalked closer, red eyes on me now.

"Sit down, chubby."

And just like that, my nerves of steel broke. I shot back down, face red. The class laughed. I blushed even harder, hiding my face with my hair.

The teacher walked in.

* * *

We started with introductions—which included quirks, if you had them. There were a few in the class with anamorphic quirks, like the wings kid, that didn't really need pointing out. But they bragged anyway.

I tried not to roll my eyes when Bakugou went. But it was hard not to marvel when he shot mini fireworks from his hands, popping in sparks.

"That's amazing, Bakugou!" Sensei praised. "A quirk at your age? And such a cool one."

He beamed.

The meek kid beside him gushed. "You're so awesome, Kacchan!"

When it came around to my turn, the class hadn't died down yet about his explosion quirk. "I'm Ryuuzaki Hotaru. I don't have a quirk yet—"

"—I thought your quirk was being chubby?" A boy with pointy eyes snickered.

My face went hot. "No—" The class laughed over me. Sensei frowned.

"It's storing food as fat?" A girl said it. I felt betrayed.

Suddenly my feet were interesting. Then I noticed that they were big feet, too, and I looked away to the floor.

I was an adult in a child's body, and I was getting bullied on the first day of school.

Then the green haired boy went. "I'm Midoriya Izuku—I don't have a quirk yet, either. I love All Might! I want to be a hero just like him!" He made a fist.

"No one asked, Deku."

_Oh_.

My stomach popped—by that I mean, it scrunched in on itself, like I had been punched. I doubled over in pain, then face planted, hard.

I woke up in the nurses' office, my parents beside me smiling.

"Congratulations, Hotaru!" they cheered. "Your quirk awakened!"

I cocked my head? "My quirk? You mean the stomach pain?"

Mom clapped her hands. "Yes! We're not sure what it means yet, but you tested positive for mutated cells—Isn't it wonderful?"

"It is." My dad was crying. "It's so wonderful, Hotaru. I'm so happy for you."

"Thanks," I said. I felt my stomach. It looked fine now, felt fine, felt hungry fine. So what was my quirk supposed to be?

Gold flashed inside my head, then I saw Hero Deku. My face fell.

I knew _when _I was now. Deku was a kid, before he became the number one hero. Before he died for me.

Even though I didn't know what it was, my quirk squirmed inside of me, whispering to me.

I couldn't hear it yet.

* * *

As school went on and I had stomach aches with no explanation or cure, albeit not as bad as the first time, I had to sit out of a lot of activities. Which meant I was left out of the groups and friendships. The rumor was that I had indigestion, not a quirk.

My classmates were brutal with no social filters. My nickname 'Chubby' was used more than my actual name.

And then the pranks started. It was putting gum under my desk first, then slathering peanut butter on my chair. Next was drawing pigs on my things with sharpies. Sensei saw and warned them to stop, but then the drawings moved to the things inside my desk. I didn't tell my parents. What could they do?

So I beared it, because I was an adult and I definitely wasn't letting stupid kids get to me. My grades were the best in the class—some of the easy stuff was coming back to me. But it just made the other kids even more annoyed at me.

"Maybe you should spend less time studying and more time running."

And then strange things started happening. I was walking down the hallway when I once again had to double over in pain. Then two seconds later, a soccer ball popped out of the classroom, smacking into the wall in front of me. I stared, dazedly, as the ache suddenly stopped.

I looked down at my stomach.

Bakugou stuck his head out of the classroom door. "Oi, chubby, give that ball back!"

I blanched—an explosive boosted kick from Bakugou would've probably knocked me out cold.

"You shouldn't be playing inside the classroom, Kacchan." Midoriya fidgeted. "You'll get into trouble."

"Shut up, Deku."

A few weeks later, I was at my desk when the cramping started. Nothing to do but wait it out.

Then a pencil bounced off the back of my head—and as soon as it did, the pain stopped again.

Could I have a danger warning quirk? It seemed like every time something bad was about to happen to me, my stomach would hurt. And if the ball incident was any indication, I could even prevent them.

The next time I felt the pain in class, I ducked. A paper wad bounced off the front of my desk and rolled to the front of the classroom. I turned, smirking at the stunned look on Tsubasa's face.

_Take that, wing-boy._

After that, it was just practice getting the timing down. Pencils and spit wads could no longer hit me.

I told my parents.

"Hm, a premonition quirk, huh?" Dad hummed. "That could be very useful."

"It will help keep you safe," Mom said. "How lucky."

My classmates caught on soon enough, so I bit the bullet and told them about my quirk. "It's called Premonition. My tummy hurts when something bad is about to happen."

"Eh," they said. "Not as good as Bakugou's."

"You can't be a hero with that quirk."

The novelty of quirks had worn off over the last year, since most of the class's quirks were awakening just about every week.

Except for Midoriya.

"That's so cool, Ryuuzaki-chan. I wonder what my quirk will be?"

I couldn't tell him—that he was quirkless—even if it wasn't forever. Midoriya, who was the only one who was ever really nice to me. Who had saved me in a different life. He deserved so much better than Bakugou as a friend.

But as the years went on, and his quirk didn't awaken, I was in no position to protect him.

Elementary came and went, and as much as it sucked, I managed through the bullying. If it hadn't been for Bakugou, I would've been much less scathed. As soon as the kids saw it was cool to pick on me and call me names, it became the status quo. But it helped some when he wasn't in my class.

My quirk protected me, kept me safe. Just not from their words.

Sticks and stones, Hotaru.

And poor, quirkless Midoriya experienced some of it too. I wasn't cool enough to tell kids to knock it off—in fact, when I tried, I made things worse.

"Thanks, Hotaru-chan." Midoriya wiped chalk dust off his clothes while I tapped it out of my hair.

"I'm sorry. They chalked you because I said something." I looked at the floor. "I'll leave you alone from now on."

He didn't exactly challenge me on that.

* * *

But middle school? New school, new me. Especially since the baby fat had melted off. I was determined not to let my old life follow me there. I had picked the school with the least amount of kids from my elementary on purpose. It was going to be perfect.

I liked the uniforms, because it took the effort of matching off of my shoulders. Yellow eyes and blue hair were such a pain.

I marched into my new classroom—1A, because of my grades. I was going to finally make a friend.

And then as soon as I stepped into the new room, my stomach hurt.

"Oi, what are you doing here, Chubby?"

"Don't call her that, Kacchan!"

* * *

**I wanted to do a new take on an OC-insert; she's not actually from our world where MHA is an anima/manga. She's in-world, and knows most of what we know of the story (so no all of it) but it's her quirk that reincarnated her into the past. Maybe that makes it a broken quirk, but I hope it's alright because all her ability levels reset. Anyway, her quirk is themed around buddhist karma, as you'll see, hence the reincarnation.**

**Let me know what you think!**

**Thanks.**


	2. And Falling

Things went on like that for awhile, until I was a second-year. That was when my quirk really awakened.

I was on my way down the stairs where our lockers were, ready to go home. I had a lot of homework but my favorite show aired on Thursdays.

I had to crouch at the top of the stairwell, however, when a familiar stomach ache knocked into me. I took deep breaths—this attack was pretty bad. But there was no one around that I could avoid. No one would even dare anymore, since it usually didn't work out with my preemptive quirk. "Come on," I groaned. "What now?" It really started to sting. Was there something slick on the stairs? Would I slip if I used this stairwell?

I made the choice to move to a different one—usually just deciding not to take a dangerous path was enough for the pain to subside. But it kept throbbing and I crouched there to figure out what was about to happen.

"Out of the way, Chubby!" From the other side of the stairwell, Bakugou dashed from around the corner. Too quickly to stop, too pigheaded to care. He smacked right into my back as he descended, taking the steps three at a time.

I toppled, lost my balance, and rolled. The stairs poked my back and limbs and I barely had the sense to cover my head. The stomach pain had stopped, at least.

I was almost on the first floor, Bakugou's back to me, then, BOOM.

Gold light flashed, something I had only ever seen in my mind's eyes before—my quirk. When the dust settled, I was sitting in a me-sized hole on the ground. Teachers came running, trying to disperse the crowd of students. Even Bakugou, who had apparently been in a rush, stopped and stared.

"That hurt." I rubbed my back. But looking at all the stairs I had fallen down, it should have been worse.

My parents took me to the doctor, so I missed my show anyway.

"If I'm not mistaken," he speculated, reading my test results. "It appears as though the energy she accumulated in the fall dispersed when it reached a certain impact level."

"What does that mean?" I asked, my knees bandaged.

"It means your mutated cells absorbed the energy from the fall and transformed it into a blast-like reaction."

"It's like karma," I commented, getting my parent's attention. "I dish out what I take, right?"

The doctor hummed. "That's one way of looking at it. The law of conservation of energy. But if you can't control when the energy is released, then it may become dangerous."

"Does she have two quirks, then?" Dad asked.

"Hmm." The doctor looked between two clipboards. "I'm wondering if they aren't two aspects of the same quirk. But Premonition is the one that stumps me the most, honestly."

Mom gasped. "What if we were wrong about her quirk? Is a danger warning even possible? Isn't that essentially reading the future?"

We were all frowning.

"It depends on how her cells interpret information and react," the doctor said. "Perhaps what they read is not the future, but the cause-effect energy certain events create."

"Isn't that what karma is?" I asked. They turned to me. But I was almost off in a different world. "Casualty. What you do comes back to you." I wasn't much of a karma nerd, and had never really bought into it. I didn't know where all of this was coming from.

When we got home, I locked myself in my room. I had to face a fact. My quirk had taken me here to right a wrong, that much I had figured. And the only wrong in my old life it let me remember was Deku being killed to save me. And, since I was here, we both must have failed—only the dead can be reincarnated.

So what was my quirk, really? This quirk that reincarnated me to this place and time. That spoke to me and protected me. Was it sentient? Was it a force?

Either way, I had it for a reason—to save Deku. There was no longer any doubt in my mind.

And to do that, I had to become a hero.

* * *

Things changed for me from that day onward. I watched the news instead of bad teenage dramas. I stopped eating junk food. Then I started running and working out, which I was no expert at. I didn't even know if I was doing it right. But I started to see results. I had already lost my baby fat, but I was never that small. Now I was cut, the last vestiges of my childhood cushioning melting away into sinew. No one could call me chubby anymore. The bullying stopped—slowly at first, and then when they noticed it didn't bother me, I started making friends instead. I cut my bangs, which I used to use to cover my eye, pulling my hair up in a bun from then on. I was open, approachable. You could see my smile.

And the more I worked with my quirk, the more certain memories returned. Karma—how intent and actions influence the future. So if my quirk could use that karmic energy, it would explain why I both sensed it and dispelled it.

My quirk wasn't premonition, nor reincarnation, it was karmic energy.

I didn't tell my parents this. But I did dive deeper into Buddhism.

Karma was one aspect. So was Samsara, or rebirth. So my working theory came into place.

My quirk made me a karmic anomaly, and I messed with the laws of the universe by accident. So Deku did nothing to deserve to die, and when he did—when _we _did, the samsara aspect of my quirk kicked in.

I needed to correct what I had changed. I just didn't exactly know what that meant, other than keep Deku from dying before he was supposed to.

That was my theory, at least. Or I could have been delusional.

At school, Midoriya was nice as usual. He never changed, even when I did. Still no quirk.

The energy inside of me hummed. I wondered if I just got out of his life, keeping me from being there when he died, he would survive. As soon as the thought crossed my mind, my stomach ached. When I understood that meant that I would have to stick closer to his side, the pain stopped.

So whatever school Midiriya picked, I would have to follow him to. No pain came with the idea.

But that presented another problem—he was still quirkless.

And as our time in middle school came to an end, that didn't change. I couldn't help but wonder how the greatest hero of a generation had been such a late bloomer.

* * *

"Listen," Sensei groaned. "I know you all want to go toward the hero track, but please, no quirks in the classroom. You all know the rules."

The class didn't listen—it was the last day of school before break. There was no taming us. I chatted with my friend Reiko, who had a hair-hardening quirk. She'd found this school in Kyushu with a hero course she could probably get into.

"Have you decided where you're going yet, Hotaru-chan?"

I surreptitiously glanced at Midoriya, who was seated right behind me. "No, not yet."

She rolled her eyes. "Too many choices, huh? I wish I had your problem. Your grades are too good." I blushed, not used to compliments from all my years of torment. I tried to hide my face with my hair.

Eventually our sensei started a class discussion on our future. "I imagine you all want to go into the hero track?"

Reiko and I peeked at each other excitedly and another foray of quirk-filled cheers rang out. Midoriya sighed heavily. I only heard because I was hyper aware of him, listening all the time.

"Don't lump me in with the rest of these losers," Bakugou laughed. His feet were on his desk.

"A little bold on the last day of school, aren't we?" I mumbled, resting my chin on my hand. But the comment was swallowed by the dissent of others. Growing up was the great equalizer, and I wish Bakugou had gotten similar pushback when we were younger.

"These guys will be lucky to be sidekicks for some D-lister hero. But I'm the real deal."

Sensei didn't have the right to shrug him off. It was true—Katsuki's in-class grades were above even mine, and his hero-aptitude grades were off the charts. Even with my karmic blasts making our quirks the most similar, he had a hero's quirk from the start. Mine was just flashy. It wasn't like I could fight. And one aspect of it almost left me incapacitated with stomach pain.

The blond smirked. "That's why I'm getting into UA."

A national school with an acceptance rate of 0.2 percent was a fool's dream, unless you were Bakugou, but especially if you were quirkless.

Sensei read his clipboard. "Oh yeah, Midoriya, don't you want to get into UA also?"

The class's reaction was to be expected, which is why Midoriya obviously didn't want anyone else to know what he'd written down.

And why I hadn't known until then—that even without his quirk, Midoriya had always intended to start out at UA. Guess I could tell Reiko where I wanted to go now.

"Midoriya," a boy laughed. "You can't get into UA without a quirk."

"Actually, they just changed that rule, so I can be the first one…"

There was a fizz and a pop, and before anyone could react, Bakugou had set off an explosion on Midoriya's desk.

"Get lost, Deku—you're worse than the other half pints in this class, quirkless-wannabe."

I saw Midoriya's wide eyes and shot up from my desk.

I was different. I had weight to throw, and I wouldn't make things worse this time.

"Shove off, Bakugou." I crossed my arms and stood between him and Midoriya.

He scowled, smirk vanishing. "What did you just say?"

"You're not better than any one of us, quirk or no quirk."

"Oh? Wanna fight then?" He raised a brow. "Let's go—I'll make you eat your words."

As tough as I wanted to be, I blanched. Bakugou would wipe the floor with me—my stomach ache told me so. I winced and grabbed my torso. It also meant he was actually serious about fighting me.

"Settle down, kids," Sensei called.

"Kacchan," Midoriya started from his spot on the floor. "I know I'm quirkless, but if I work hard then—"

Bakugou cackled. "You think you could hang in the big leagues? Deku, you'd die in the entrance exams!"

I winced again. He wasn't exactly wrong, with his current state. But it was hard to see Midoriya's dream get crushed.

Well, it wasn't like Bakugou had never said this to him before.

"I said, settle down!" Sensei slapped his desk, and we relented, shuffling to our seats.

I was still fuming by the time the bell finally rang for the last time.

Reiko tapped my desk as the rest of the class left. "Hotaru-chan, wanna celebrate with me and some others? We're going to a karaoke place."

I shook my head. "Sorry. I have to fill out an application tonight."

Her eyes widened. "No way, you decided then?" Then they narrowed. "Don't tell me—UA?" I nodded, my face serious, and she tapped her chin. "Did Bakugou get to you that much?"

I couldn't exactly say I had to follow Midoriya, especially since he was still behind me on his phone. So I said, "Someone's got to put him in his place."

"You too, Hotaru-chan?" Midoriya chimed in from behind us. He grinned. "That's so cool. Good luck!"

I blushed. "Thanks, Midoriya." I stood to pack my things, Reiko waving goodbye and taking off without me. Before I stepped out of the room, I added, "See you there."

I wanted to stick around and see his face light up—hopefully—but didn't have the guts.

* * *

That night, as I sat at my kitchen table and filled out the online UA application, my stomach started hurting like never before.

"Uh…" I moaned, laying my face on the counter. Mom stopped chopping onions and looked over at me. "Hotaru? Are you having a premonition?"

"I think so." I tilted my chin up and glanced up at her, face feverish. "But I don't think something is about to happen to me."

She hummed in thought, then realization hit her. "Could it be… Period cramps?"

"Ugh."

"Here, I'll make you some supper. Maybe that will help."

I shook my head vigorously. "No, I'm not hungry. Besides, it might make it worse."

I didn't find out until later—why the air was crackling with so much karmic energy that day.

Not until I saw All Might defeat a slime monster, with Bakugou on the news

* * *

**I hope my explanation of Hotaru's real quirk makes sense. I also hope it's not too overpowered—I mean, it is, but I hope its temporary power up when it reincarnated her made sense.**

**Thank you for all the favs and follows! And thank you YummyGummies-UwU, Necrogod and Akagitsune for their reviews!**


	3. Ten Months

Summer break also came and went, as time does. With my running getting more serious, I was in the best shape of my life. But my mom was upset with me.

"You always said you didn't want to be a hero. What changed?" Mom asked.

"I did."

I asked my dad to help me train when he got off of work. He was so excited when I told him where I'd applied. He spent his nights looking up training tips and hero fun facts.

"We have ten months until the entrance exam," I said.

"Better get cracking. Should we work with Karma today?"

I nodded. He pushed his glasses up and we went outside together. My mom watched from outside the sliding glass door, her arms crossed and brows furrowed.

"Okay, what should I do?"

I thought for a moment. "What I need to be able to do is release my stored karmic energy when I want to."

He nodded. "Right. Otherwise, you wouldn't have a consistent attack. And you could explode at the worst moment."

It'd happened before in class. Little taps didn't usually set me off, unless it had been awhile since I'd exploded. Mostly I just had to watch out for fly balls in PE.

"So," I hummed. "Attack me?"

"Wait!" I hadn't noticed Mom step outside and onto the patio. "Are you serious? Kentaro, if you just attack her until she blows up, you'll get hurt yourself. She can't control it."

Dad blushed. "Right, so…"

Mom sighed. "She needs to start off by herself, then move on to the finer details."

And then she drove us to a gym downtown.

"Here." She set up a boxing dummy. "Beat that up, Hotaru."

I did. My parents laughed at me.

"What?"

"Nothing," Mom said, covering her mouth with her hand. "You just don't look like you know how to fight."

"That's because I don't," I deadpanned. "That's why we're here."

The next punch, I felt the energy inside of me swirl. Grinning, I swung once more, and a beam of gold shot from my hand at impact. It usually exploded from whichever part of my body it hit like that.

"That was a lot of swings," my dad commented. "I'm worried that you'll have to take a few hits to really fight back. And well, you still take the damage."

"It's going to be difficult to work around," Mom nodded. "But for now, just work on holding back when you're about to blow. Then we can move on to training with others."

* * *

Midorya was going through a change of his own. It was evident in the bags under his eyes, in the sudden muscles he put on. He went from scrawny to toned over the break. Seven months into the year, he was ripped. His quirk must have awakened, I thought, but wondered why he would hide it. It would give Bakugou a heart attack for sure, and we all wanted to see that.

I had put some muscle on myself. I could carry my dad down the street and back. Heroes needed to carry people larger than them for evacuation purposes. They couldn't afford to be slowed down.

My biggest change was with my quirk, however. My dad didn't know anything about fighting, but neither did most villains. Either way, there had been two things I had been able to learn. The first was to hold back the karmic energy past my previous threshold. That was what I had worked on first, so no one would get hurt around me.

The second thing was letting it out before the threshold.

"There," Mom said, looking at dad's beat up hand as he iced it. "Now you don't have to rack up so many hits before you can fight back."

It was true—but my power still relied on others to work. I still couldn't send anything out at the first few hits, and even if I did, I only shot out what I had taken. Plus, I couldn't hit under the threshold unless I was the one being attacked. I just didn't have the hang of the gathering energy bit.

And, as my mom pointed out, I was entirely vulnerable to sharp objects. They had too little karmic energy and did too much damage to my body to rack up a couple of punches.

"Since your quirk is more of a countermeasure, you're at a huge disadvantage," Dad noted. "You'll be a sitting duck until they attack you. And your success depends on their power type as well."

There was so much to worry about out of school that I didn't have time for friends. Reiko stopped inviting me out. I went straight home every day and worked out or worked on my quirk.

"Hotaru," Mom frowned. "You need to eat more. You're using a lot of energy."

"Yes, Mom."

And time went on.

* * *

I breathed, trying to settle my nerves. UA was a huge school, with crazy funds, and it showed. It was practically an amalgamation of skyscrapers. There was a lot of money in heroes, and in Japan, just as much in education. The front entrance was ornamented with the official UA emblem.

My dad would totally freak.

I headed toward the stairs.

"You've got to be kidding me." All my excitement, crushed under a sudden wave of annoyance. "What are you doing here, Chubby?"

I turned to see none other than Bakugou headed in the same direction. Well. It wasn't like I didn't know he was going to be here. I had just hoped to avoid him.

"I'm taking the entrance exam, same as you." I scowled. "And you can't call me that. I'm not chubby anymore."

"Heh," he scoffed. "Just don't get in my way." He moved to walk past me, which was annoying, but I let him. He would probably freak out and accuse me of trying to get him to follow me.

First was the exam orientation, so I stepped into a darkened presentation room behind Bakugou. There, we were given seating charts.

"Perfect," I groaned, realizing they were organized by middle schools. That meant I sat beside Bakugou. I showed him the paper.

"Whatever."

We found our seats. I was honestly surprised at how chill he was acting. Was he actually nervous for the exam?

I knew I was, but I was used to putting up a front. Compartmentalizing, my mom called it. I was a pro secret keeper. My whole existence demanded it.

Soon after, a familiar face took the open spot on Bakugou's other side.

"Kacchan, Hotaru-chan."

I grinned. "Hey. You ready?"

Midoriya nodded, giving a nervous smile.

Present Mic started then, so we didn't have time to catch up. As it turned out, he explained, we were all assigned our testing arenas for the practical exam on the paper we were given.

"I get it," Bakugou said. "They're splitting us up so we can't work with our friends."

I checked my paper—Battle Center C. "That explains why we're organized by schools."

"You're right." Midoriya laid down his card beside Bakugou's. "Our ID numbers are sequential, but we're all in different Centers."

A vein appeared on Bakugou's forehead. "Get your eyes off my paper, Deku."

"Sorry."

"I was really looking forward to crushing you," the blond muttered.

With the challenge in mind—beat the robots, get the points—I stood with the others.

"Good luck," I waved, splitting off from the boys. Midoriya waved back and Bakugou glared daggers.

I wished his looks added to my energy supply. Sadly, intent without action didn't give me anything to work with. Besides, Dad had helped me stock up on karma before I got here. Bakugou would probably set it all off with a single attack.

I had to do some map reading to find my way to the right battle center, but it was easy to find the crowd of people waiting to be let inside.

Once we were, it was ready, set, go.

* * *

I was grateful for the modern setting, if only because it gave me great leverage and hiding spots. But it was also set up similar to a maze, and it slowed others down. This was where premonition gave me an advantage.

I dashed around the corner, ready to take a right, but as soon as I made the decision, my stomach pouted. Left, then. I sprinted forward, the pain gone, and got a one up on the other examinees who didn't have speed boosting quirks.

Finding the robots was half the battle.

I ducked into an alley, but then heard a scream. Bursting through the other end, I saw a girl with green hair made of vines being overwhelmed by a group of bots. Her vines couldn't break through the metal armor, I realized, and she was running out of strands to immobilize them. She didn't have a great quirk for fighting these robots.

I would have loved to swoop in and take all those kills, but there were too many for me to take on, considering I only had one shot. But I didn't feel right just leaving that girl alone to get overwhelmed.

I closed my eyes, deciding to take her down the alleyway opposite me.

My stomach tensed. No? Back the way I had come, then. Not there either? I looked around, but those were my only two options.

Then I spotted a crack in the building behind her. The pain ebbed, and I dashed toward her.

She didn't see me until I was right in front of her. I grabbed her arm. "Follow me!"

She nodded, releasing her hair until it was a normal length. I helped her jump from a pile of rubble just as a level three swung at her previous spot. The force of the blow threw my hair into my face.

Just as I had thought, the crack turned into a hole in the base of the building. I motioned her first, and she slipped inside, feet first. We were just the right size to fit.

We dropped to the ground, the girl using her quirk to lower us in case the distance was too far. We were in the basement, I realized.

"Thanks," she said. "I was in a tight spot."

I nodded. "I think there are stairs over here."

I yelped as my stomach woke up. "Nevermind. This way, actually."

Once we were on the ground floor, we agreed to split up so as not to steal each other's targets.

"See you on the other side." She used her hair to propel her whole body over the huge piles of debris.

But then premonition led me onto the upper levels of the buildings—no one else was inside, I noticed, because our targets weren't.

But a boulder teetering on the edge of an already busted building had a lot of karmic energy, especially when a group of three robots was cornered below it. I used my whole body to push, premonition tightening and then releasing inside of me when it was the right time.

I peered over through the hole, where two examinees glared at me. "Hey! Those were ours!"

Not according to my quirk. I ducked out of sight so they wouldn't get too good a chance to remember my face. Hopefully they didn't pass and I wouldn't have to worry about hard feelings.

I couldn't be in one place for too long. We had moving targets in this race.

My quirk next took me into an area that hadn't been explored or damaged yet. Moments later, a slew of one point robots pursued me around the corner, firing a small explosive. It missed me, probably because they were programmed not to actually hit their targets, but I went flying all the same.

My side slammed into the pavement, bruising my hip. I rolled over, yelping when the robots were already on top of me. I stuck out my arm to swing.

_Not yet._

My stomach pulled until I was breathless, and I just barely managed to roll away before I was crushed. I wouldn't have recovered from that type of injury. Plus, I was way past the threshold at this point.

I was desperate to unleash a karmic blast, by my stomach still curled in on itself. I doubled over, my hip sore as well, as they closed in.

_Now?_

_No._

_Now?_

_Now._

My quirk relented, and I shot up unexpectedly, pain free, arms out as the robot pushed forward. It rolled into them.

Gold shot out, and then a series of explosions as one created a chain reaction.

I breathed heavily, checking the results as the dust settled.

_Woah._

There had been two three-point bots and one two-point bot mixed in with the seven one points I had been targeting.

Thank you, Karma!

Soon after, the ground started to shake. An earthquake?

I looked around, spotting a group of buildings tipping over toward the center of the arena. Then a giant robot head peaked out from over the skyline.

_Holy shit._

It was huge. And that was a zero pointer? I was expecting them to be an obstacle like hurdles on a track, not Godzilla in Tokyo.

I chose to run away from it and back toward the entrance, since our time was running out anyway. No pain occurred as I fled. I didn't need my quirk to tell me it was the right decision—once I used a blast, there was no holding onto increments. I had to stock up again. Besides, it was zero points. There was no reason to take it out.

Anyway, the horns blew before I would have made it. Time was up.

I hadn't been able to catch the first three robots I had crushed, so I had no idea what my score was. I had at least eighteen points. But I was so far away from other examinees that I couldn't compare my score to theirs. I hoped it was enough.

My dad was so excited to get the letter in the mail a week after. He was like a fanboy, jumping up and down.

"Open it with me," I said, handing him one corner.

"Hanako," he called. My mom came running down the hall from the bathroom, her toothbrush in hand.

We opened it together.

A projector fell out, and it started as soon as we set it on a stable surface.

"That's All Might," Dad gasped. "That's a good sign, right? They wouldn't have him do this for all the applicants. Maybe just those who passed?"

I hoped so.

The number one hero went on to explain the point system. "Ryuuzaki Hotaru. Congratulations, young lady. With twenty-four combat points and forty rescue points, you've earned your spot at UA."

I cheered. My parents cried.

It was a good day.

* * *

The next day at school could have been better.

Our sensei called me, Midoriya, and Bakugou into his office to congratulate us. "Seriously, kids. I'm so impressed. To have not one, but three of my students going to UA?"

I glanced over at Bakugou, who remained stoic for now. But I knew deep down he was about to boil over.

And as soon as we got away and outside, I was right. Midoriya had been expecting it too, he was such a nervous wreck.

"So, what'd you guys do to cheat?"

"Excuse me?" I turned on him.

Bakugou scowled so deeply I thought he might cut himself with his teeth. "Listen, losers, I was supposed to be the first and only student to go to UA from this school." He glared at Midoriya particularly hard. "And I warned you not to apply."

"That's a pretty meaningless achievement, if you got it because we didn't apply." I crossed my arms. "I think you're just a sore loser."

"Hotaru-chan." Midoriya shook his head. I realized he was trying to be empathic to Bakugou, who was hurt because we took something from him.

Except, we didn't really. He was the only person in the world who cared he was the only person from this school to go. I rolled my eyes. There's such a thing as being too much of a saint, Midoriya.

"Whatever," Bakugou hissed. "Just know, I'm gonna enjoy wrecking the two of you there. You're gonna wish you'd never been born."

All of my problems would be solved if I hadn't been born—that is, Deku wouldn't have died. But I didn't say that.

Bakugou took off, leaving the two of us stunned.

"Why do you bother being nice to him?" I frowned. "He's nothing but awful to everyone. Especially to you."

Midoriya shook his head. "I've known Kacchan for a long time. He's a really amazing person, you know?"

"He's a bully," I said. "What kind of hero does that make him?"

He shrugged.

* * *

**I realize I've used the word explosion to describe Hotaru's release of karmic energy, but I want to clarify that it's not the Bakugou kind of explosion. It's an unleash of golden energy, so it's not going to start a fire or anything. Her ability to use it makes her uncannily lucky, as her mutated cells basically read the karmic energy of actions as they play out, (since part of the idea of karma is that the future is influenced by an individual's intent and actions). It's not a solid future like Nighteye's, but more of an inertia/potential kinetic energy. That's how I see it, at least. Maybe that doesn't make any sense.**

**Thank you for reading!**


	4. Hero's Visage

The class 1-A door was huge, which I assumed was to accommodate those with larger quirks. Sure enough, the first person I saw inside had wings made of arms. The next student to catch my attention had the head of a bird, complete with a beak and feathers, though the rest of his body was human. These were some monstrous quirks. The big leagues.

Then there was Bakugou, on the far side of the room. The only reaction he gave to me was a cocky, "Che." Then he put his feet on his desk, as if to tell me that things wouldn't change from middle school.

I scowled back.

A tall, square-jawed boy noticed Bakugou's feet right away and marched over. I was close to warning him—an argument with Bakugou was energy wasted. But the blond needed to be chastised, so I found the seating chart on the chalkboard and found my spot. I was seat number 10, which put me in the back and behind a boy who looked like he was made of stone. Great. I wished I could see through solids like my mom.

To my right was an empty seat, and to my left was a kid with red and white hair split perfectly down the middle. There was also a nasty scar on his eye—my right, his left. I tried not to stare, but he caught me looking as I sat down. I turned to the front. Besides Bakugou and Square Face, no one was really socializing, if you could call what they were doing that. I fidgeted under my desk.

Most of the class was shuffling in or was already seated, so I had a chance to look at them all. There were some obvious quirks, like the blond guy with the tail and a walking uniform with no one in it. Then there was a boy with spiky red hair, and other 'normal' looking kids. Heaven knew what all of their quirks were.

Soon Midoriya walked in. Most of the class had made it by now, being uncannily early on the first day (hell, even Bakugou was early), and turned to look at the newcomer. He blushed and waved.

Square Face made a beeline for him—apparently they had met during the entrance exam. I pulled out my cell phone discreetly and checked the time. Where was our sensei? Class was about to start.

I got my answer a few minutes later when a pro-hero popped up from behind the teacher's desk. In a sleeping bag. Heroes weren't anything if they weren't eccentric, but I didn't recognize his scruffy face, and at this point his costume was hidden. We were told to change and meet outside for the day.

The class made a short stop at the locker rooms so we could switch into the blue gym suits. "How All Might," I said, eyeing the white and red lines. Once we were outside in the huge field, our new sensei made an announcement.

"A quirk assessment?" I fidgeted.

"Not quite. It will be like the physical exams you all took in middle school, but you'll be allowed to use your quirks to their full power." Sensei eyed us. "And whoever is last will be immediately expelled."

The class broke into nervous murmuring. UA was notoriously difficult to get into, but this was a little ridiculous. But so was the hero profession.

The panic started to set in—I could only unleash my blasts once before I was spent, so I would have to pick one event to excel at and hope I would be less mediocre than some other poor soul.

Aizawa sensei had Bakugou demonstrate with the ball throw, who didn't hold back. He got over seven hundred meters, which made his old record seem like child's play. I looked at my hands—I couldn't beat that even if I was holding karma past my threshold. Like usual, the class was impressed by Bakugou's quirk. The air buzzed with excitement; we weren't often told to go all out with our powers.

I glanced at Midoriya. If he passed the entrance exam, he would _have _to have a quirk, right? Despite the new rules that allowed the quirkless, you would still have to beat the robots in the exam.

First was the 50 meter dash, and I was glad to start out at something I was competent at. Square Face was one of the first to go, revealing his quirk of speed. Pretty convenient for the test. That meant he was safe. Being the best at a single event and you couldn't get sent home.

Bakugou literally blasted himself to the endline, beating even the speed quirk, which I guess took some time to break into full speed. I lined up with a pink girl—literally, she had pink skin and hair, with black, buggy eyes.

The shot rang out, and I sprinted, not holding back. Even so, Pinky broke a step ahead of me, and I ended up in the six-second range just behind her.

I jogged to a stop past the line, something my dad taught me to avoid injuries. Bakugou glared at me as I passed. "Can't use your shitty quirk for much."

I caught my breath and ignored him. He wasn't wrong. My quirk wouldn't help me out much in this situation, and I wasn't exactly proving myself innovative with using it as he was.

Grip strength went even worse, because I was below average. That was true also for the standing long jump, the side jump, and the toe touch. Forget worrying about Midoriya. _I_ was gone at this rate.

But I was stocking up some karma, as workouts tended to do for me. Every impact on the ground or strain in my muscles added to my hoard incrementally.

"Alright," I breathed, stepping up to the ball throw. "Just copy Bakugou. Remember his timing."

I cranked my arm, then threw the ball, unleashing the pent up energy in my cells. I wasn't at my full capacity, but it would have to do. The ball disappeared from sight, the only indication that it was flying the gold waves in the air.

"Flashy," the red haired boy grinned at me. I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly.

"Four-hundred and three meters," Aizawa Sensei said. I grinned, getting some cheers from my classmates even though none of us knew each other.

Then a brown haired girl went after me, and her ball never came down.

"Woah," I breathed.

She blushed. "That's my quirk: Zero Gravity."

I blanched. These were the big leagues. Every power was going to be just as useful as Bakugou's.

Next up at the pitch was Midoriya. I fidgeted.

"Oh, this will be good," Bakugou cackled.

Square Face frowned at him. "If Midoriya doesn't kick it into high-gear, he might be going home."

"Of course he's going home," Bakugou said. "He's a quirkless loser."

I bit my lip, but ultimately couldn't hold back my glare. "Still accusing him of cheating to get in?"

Red eyes shot daggers back at me. "Yeah, Chubby. Clearly you two played the system. How else would you be here? Either way, Deku's worse. He can't even do well in one event without a quirk."

Square Face shot him a look of confusion. "Quirkless? No, Midoriya has a quirk. Haven't you heard what happened in the entrance exam?"

To this, Bakugou and I shared a look of surprise. I turned to Square Face.

"No, what happened?"

The boy shook his head. "He saw through the whole test. Made a fool out of the rest of us, and took down the zero point robot."

That sounded like Midoriya. If he was anything, he was clever. But how had he taken down the zero point? I realized my mouth was open.

Bakugou scoffed. "The _zero point_ robot?" From the dismissive look on his face, I wondered if he didn't realize those were the giant robots. Or maybe he just plain didn't believe Square Face.

As he rolled his eyes, Midoriya threw his first attempt. "46 meters."

I watched Bakugou break into uncontrollable laughter. "Yeah, you definitely have him confused with some other guy." Yeah, what happened? Midoriya should have a quirk by now. Yet he wasn't excelling at any of the challenges.

The Deku I knew had a quirk, as simple as that. So what was I missing?

Midoriya was looking at Aizawa Sensei.

"Something happened," I said, trying to get Bakugou to go quiet so I could hear. Midoriya stepped back up to the circle with a new ball for his final attempt. He seemed to be thinking hard. Then, suddenly, he cranked his arm back and threw.

"Smash!"

Our jaws dropped, and the ball sped off into the distance. I think it even broke the sound barrier.

And standing in the circle was Deku—not just Midoriya. I had never seen them as the same person before. Not really. Logically I knew, but seeing meek little Izuku use his quirk for the first time? I saw the hero that gave his life to save me. Tears welled in my eyes.

"He's so cool," I breathed.

_I had killed that. Now I had to protect him. _

I saw Bakugou glance at me, his expression souring. I hadn't meant to say it aloud, knowing it would piss him off to not be the one praised. I clapped my hand over my mouth. But he was practically stunned into silence. Like the sight of a Deku with a quirk was a shock to the system.

Eventually, he snapped out of it. "Deku!" Bakugou shot out of the crowd at Midoriya. "You're so dead!"

"Bakugou!" I shouted. "Leave him alone!"

"Is he serious?" Square Face cried.

But Aizawa Sensei caught the blond in his wrappings, erasing the explosions that were about to pop in his hands. Midoriya watched, stunned. The whole class probably had the same expression. Sensei chewed him out in front of us. I'd never seen something like it before. Bakugou, told to knock it off until he was forced to listen. It was almost more amazing than Midoriya's throw.

The green haired boy joined the rest of us, avoiding Bakugou at all costs.

I shoved his arm and whistled. "That's new."

He blushed. "Yeah. I have to be careful with it." He held up his hand.

The gravity girl—Uraraka—dashed over. "Woah, does your finger hurt?"

Sure enough, his whole digit was red and swollen. Probably broke the bone. I frowned.

Wasn't that a little _too _incapacitating? He couldn't use his quirk without completely wrecking his body, and that didn't sound right. Quirks didn't just hurt their owner like that, late bloomer or not. And if it was as bad as it was now, how could he have improved so quickly to when he became a pro? This would take decades to correct for a normal person.

Yes, he was finally starting to really look like a hero. But he wasn't there yet. This power had consequences. The visage of the hero from my memories faded away once more.

After Bakugou managed to calm down, the class moved onto the rest of the tests. I wasn't the only one who couldn't use my quirk for the distance run, so I ended up fairing pretty well. At least, I didn't think I'd be the one to get expelled.

Sensei pulled up the list; I'd gotten 16th, just above someone named Kyouka Jiro. Then I remembered to check for last place and—

Midoriya in the twentieth spot? No way. He'd gotten such a good score on the ball throw.

Premonition was silent, so I was left confused.

Until Aizawa-sensei let us off the hook and admitted he was lying about the expulsion. I tried not to groan with the others. Was it going to be like this all the time?

Class was dismissed, so we all hurried to change back into our uniforms (ironically, to go home). I shuffled out of the entrance with the other students, glad to have survived the first day at UA. Tomorrow wouldn't be as scary. I'd go home, do some research on Aizawa and late-blooming quirks, and maybe work on Karma with my dad since I already did some running.

"Hey, Chubby."

I stopped and turned. Bakugou stalked over, his hands in his pockets and a deep scowl on his face. I glanced around, but he was definitely talking to me. Weird.

"Did you know?"

I frowned. "Did I know what?"

He scoffed. "Don't play dumb—about Deku."

Taken aback, I blinked. "That he had a quirk?" I shrugged. "Well, since he passed the entrance exam, I figured."

Bakugou's eyes narrowed. "And you didn't question where it came from? You don't find it _weird_?"

"Not really. There are plenty of cases of adults suddenly getting a quirk."

Instead of screaming at me like I was used to, he fell into a contemplative silence.

"I can't get past the timing."

I hummed. "You mean that it awakened right before the exam? I noticed a change about ten months ago, actually—after the slime villain attack."

At the reminder of his rescue, his face twisted again. "Che." He pulled away.

We were both headed the same way. I ended up walking beside him. I shook my head. "I don't get it, Bakugou. Why does he bother you that much?" It was a genuine question. Midoriya didn't need to do anything to piss him off, yet he took it so personally.

It seemed to irk him more than anything else I'd said, and he didn't respond.

* * *

The next day, we started regular curriculum classes. This was the stuff I was good at, skills and lessons I'd already learned and retained from my previous high school experience. I didn't remember any of my old teachers or classmates, but math was math, Japanese was Japanese, and English was English.

Then, to all of our surprise, All Might had us for the Hero course.

The man—the legend—was huge. I think I went up to his waist.

Asui perked up. "Is that his silver-age costume?" Even the frog girl was a fan. I shot a quick look at Midoriya. He seemed excited, but definitely not as over the moon as I had been expecting to see. It was no secret what a mega fanboy he was. I would have expected him to faint, maybe even die. Yet none of that happened. I frowned.

Instead of our blue gym uniforms, it was finally time to get our hero costumes. I was excited to see the sketch I had sent in as real clothes. Dad helped me design it.

Soon I was clad in gold-tinted ski-goggles, a black sporty bra, and black jacket over top, stopping at my midriff. Yellow combat boots—reinforced with iron, as they recommended—and a yellow tool belt for gadgets completed my pop of color, while I had included white fingerless gloves to protect all the way up my arms, and similar white leggings under black shorts. Heat and cold resistant, they were better than anything I could have put together myself.

I actually felt like a hero, and even though it was a little awkward at first to parade around in our own designs, everyone was in their gear.

All Might took us to another arena like the ones they had used during the entrance exam, a modern city setting.

We drew lots for teams—Bakugou and Iida got paired together, which I found funny, considering how yesterday had gone.

I was team B with Todoroki—the guy with the split hair. He didn't say much to me when All Might gave the teams a minute to strategize and assess the partnership. It made me fidget.

"Now we'll draw for the match-ups." All Might drew from two boxes, one to represent the hero team and the second to represent the villain team. Team A vs. team D—I glanced around. That was Bakugou and Iida against…

Uraraka and Midoriya. I winced as we shuffled into the monitoring room. Premonition didn't tell me anything wrong was going to happen, but it usually took a lot of karmic energy in the air before I started to feel it if the event wasn't connected to me.

Still, I had a bad feeling about the match. And I could tell by his squared shoulders that Bakugou meant business. He wouldn't go easy on anyone, especially not Midoriya.

Fidgeting, I approached All Might. He leaned down to listen to my shy voice. "Um, I think you should switch up the teams."

"But why, young lady?"

I tried to stumble through my words, but the man was larger than life. I had to glance away. "Bakugou—he has a grudge against Midoriya. I'm worried he'll take things too far."

He hummed. "I figured as much. Both Midoriya-shounen and Bakugou-shounen are passionate about becoming heroes. But don't worry, I'll be here to stop things if they try to cross any lines."

I couldn't say much to that, so I nodded. The number one hero could stop Bakugou full-stop in an instant. But he also didn't know what Bakugou could be like. This fight was years in the making.

I joined the rest of the class to watch the monitor, biting my lip, as the test started.

* * *

**I seriously debated having her replace Mineta. However, that left a huge hole where Satou didn't (former seat ten). Please forgive me. Mineta's shit. But he's personality. Satou is in Class-B, having been replaced by Hotaru for seat 10, and some poor extra didn't make the cut. They drew lots so their partner's were randomized.**

**TBH I didn't feel good about this chapter. It was a lot of important stuff that I didn't think I could leave out, but it's pretty close to Canon originally. I tried to get through it pretty quickly, but it's not my favorite way to write. Of course I want to change the plot, but it's going to be more of a snowball effect. Bear with me. **

**Now, for a rant-**

**Listen. I've been through this rodeo a couple of times. I've been on this site since I was definitely too young and now I'm definitely too old, but It's a hobby and I like writing in these universes that I enjoy. I get that my kinda thing isn't everyone's kind of thing, and that's fine. Your kinda thing isn't my kinda thing, probably. So I'm just not gonna read it, because I can choose what I do with my time.**

**What I'm not going to do, is go to another person's fic and leave this:**

"**If it has an OC, FUCKING LABEL IT. I hate them so I always filter them out, but idiots like you just can't label shit correctly. It's not fucking hard to label something, just do it." **And especially not as a guest because I'm not a coward.

**I get that the world sucks right now. We're all angry. My semester in Japan was cancelled ten days before I was supposed to go. Then my friend invited me to Arizona to see a long time friend who's program in South Korea was also cancelled and we were all feeling depressed. However, I can't go to that either because I caught a viral infection and am self-quarantined. It sucks, and I'm disappointed. So I'm really looking forward to seeing people interact with something I've been writing as nothing more than a hobby. **

**To be clear, I did label this fic. It was just somehow accidentally reset of all character settings, which I didn't notice because I DID label it OC, Bakugou, and Midoriya. Shit happens. If you had just sent a little, "Hey, could you label your characters? Thanks." Great. Sufficient. The rage is proportional to the first world problem that this is. Like, you didn't find it strange at all that it didn't have a single character label? (And correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't give you the option to exclude labels, so if other canon labels match what you're looking for then you'd get my fic anyway.)**

**Cool. Would have done that. Thanks for telling me. But leaving this message is absolutely unacceptable. And I know most of you guys wouldn't even dream of leaving something nasty like that. So thank you to all the favs and follows.**

**Yes, Mr. Guest, it's easy to label the fic if your internet or computer or whatever doesn't malfunction and not save your changes. But it's even easier to see the strange name that is in the very beginning of the description and the "OC" at the very end (or read the sentence long description), and then to ignore it and scroll on. It's harder than both of those things to click and write a nasty review on a fic you already know you have no intention on reading. **

**Boom, roasted, thanks for reading.**


	5. Big Pond

The hero team tried to slip in, using stealth to their advantage. I fretted from my spot in the monitor room, rocking on the balls of my feet.

"Relax."

It was my partner for the match-ups—Todoroki. He eyed me, almost annoyed, through his ice armor. "Just focus on yourself and what you're going to be doing for our fight."

I didn't respond. Not bad advice, but he didn't exactly know what I had invested in this first round.

Underdeveloped-quirk Midoriya against an extra angry Bakugou was like a kid against a Japanese hornet. This wouldn't be pretty. Maybe even deadly.

In moments, the encounter on the screen went from stealth-focused to explosion-filled as Bakugou jumped at Midoriya. I clamped a hand over my mouth. Smoke went up, obscuring our vision from the camera. But Midoriya had grabbed Uraraka and leapt away, effectively dodging. His mask was spent, though. The assault continued and—

And Midoriya grabbed Bakugou's arm, using his newfound strength to flip him onto the ground.

I gasped, shocked. It hadn't been with his quirk, but Midoriya had just countered Bakugou. The blond laid on the ground, either shocked frozen or catching his breath.

Uraraka diverged, breaking for the weapon.

Bakugou swung and failed once more.

"Dang, he's not even using his quirk," Kirishima whistled. "And Bakugou got the highest scare at the entrance exams. He's doing really well."

He was definitely the underdog who hadn't failed yet. Bakugou got more irritated and Midoriya shot down another hall to create some distance.

I sighed in relief. "That's a good strategy. Bakugou's going to go after him and completely forget about the mission." He'd take himself out of the game, but Bakugou would be more of a threat than Midoriya would be a help in retrieving the weapon.

"Bakugou's a little too good at playing the villain." Kaminari laughed nervously. That was an understatement. He'd been the villain of my story since the day he first called me chubby.

It was a game of hide and seek, but as time ran out for the hero team, the whole class knew they would have to change up their strategy. Bakugou knew this too, and cornered Midoriya.

My nerves had settled some after seeing him perform so well, but I didn't like the look on Bakugou's face as he aimed his gauntlets. He prepared to pull a pin.

All Might pressed the walkie-talkie. "Bakugou-shounen, don't pull that—"

I watched in horror as he didn't listen, sending a magnified blast down the narrow hallway. Midoriya had to brace for impact. I looked to All Might, eyes wide. I wished he had listened to me and stopped the whole thing before it started.

Kirishima seemed to be thinking the same thing. "Sir, isn't this getting a little out of hand?"

"I'll give them some time." He pulled up the speaker for Bakugou and Midoriya to hear, forbidding Bakugou to unleash his other gauntlet.

The fight went on, Bakugou showing off some flashy flips.

Even Todoroki seemed impressed. "He doesn't seem like the type to strategize, but he's actually pretty intelligent."

I scowled. When you're around Bakugou as much as I was, it was hard to listen to the compliments. He got them a lot, and they fueled him.

"He changed the trajectory of his jump with a small burst, and it doubled as a smoke screen so he could attack from behind."

The smart girl, Yaoyorozu, chimed in. "That took a lot of precision, physically and with his quirk."

Kaminari groaned. "I hate how talented this guy is."

I gritted my teeth. Me too.

Midoriya took some hits and was forced to retreat. No one could fault him. Instead, they were rising questions, asking All Might to end the fight. The pro hero remained silent.

_Why?_

Then to our surprise, Midorya charged Bakugou.

"He wasn't running away before," I realized. If he had, it had been a bad move to run out into the open only to come right at him again.

"They're going to kill each other!" It was Kirishima. Part of me thought he was right.

"Please, All Might." I braced myself, unable to look away from the screen.

The boys met to swing, Bakugou causing an explosion. At the last moment, Midoriya swung up, taking the full blow into his side, but sending a powerful attack through the roof. In the other monitor, Uraraka used the debris to get in Iida's way, floating and dropping herself onto the weapon.

"They won!"

As the smoke cleared, we saw the damage that had been done unto Midoriya's body. Two ruined arms, and singed flesh.

* * *

The class, sans an injured Midoriya, went through a critique of the battle. After all, the whole point of the exercise was to learn. I couldn't help noticing how despondent Bakugou was. I'd never seen him that way before. But what was I supposed to do, ask him if he was alright? He'd just kicked the crap out of Midoriya. I knew better than to think he felt guilty—he was just mad he'd lost. But maybe he would finally stop accusing Midoriya of cheating to get into UA.

Anyway, I had to focus. Team B was drawn next as the villain team against team I, which was the blond kid with the thick tail and the invisible girl, Ojiro and Tooru.

The four of us broke into teams for a quick strategy meeting, giving us a chance to prepare in the weapon room. I took the time to examine the rocket as Todoroki waited for the bell to chime so we could start.

"Tooru's quirk was practically made for this," I commented. "Ojiro's probably going to try and distract us so she can sneak by and touch the weapon." He looked bored—I guess he knew this already. "So what do you think we should do?" I had a few ideas myself, but I didn't exactly know the extent of his quirk.

"Let me handle it," he said.

Did I hear him right? "You know, this is a _team _challenge." Besides, I had one of the few quirks that could foil invisibility.

He didn't seem to hear my objection. "I'll just make a barrier." Before I could stop him—not that I would have, but still—he took a step. Ice shot from his foot, coating the floor and surrounding the entire room, walls and all. I shivered, wishing I'd designed a winter coat into my costume.

He froze the door shut, too, so I couldn't tell if he'd confined his power to the room we were in or the whole building.

"Doesn't this tell them exactly where we are?" I tried to argue, hugging myself as the temperature dropped.

"It doesn't matter if they find us."

The test started and we waited around the weapon. I tried to take a page from Yaoyorozu's book and kept my guard up the entire time, though it wasn't easy when I could see my breath.

Soon we heard banging at the door. Not the best strategy, but Todoroki had made it so that they didn't have a choice. Ojiro burst into the room, having used his tail to break the door down. But Todoroki had already sent another wave of ice, catching his feet before he could react.

My partner gritted his teeth. "I didn't get the invisible one."

"She didn't come inside with him," I said. "They sacrificed Ojiro's movement to get the door open."

He moved to reseal the door.

"Wait a second," I muttered. We could win that way, but we'd have to let the time run out. If we incapacitated her now, we could win via immobilization and have it over with in moments.

_I'll tell him to attack now to the left_—no?

My gut churned and pulled. _To the right, then. Now?_

_No._

_Now._

I pointed. "There, on the right wall."

Todoroki spared me a glance but listened, sending a wave of ice. This time, it wrapped around two invisible legs.

"C-cold!" Tooru cried. I winced, realizing she was probably naked.

"Sorry," Todoroki said.

A voice crackled over the speaker system. "The hero team is incapacitated—Villains win!"

I sighed, because I hadn't gotten to do much. I didn't really feel like a hero. Todoroki pressed his hand onto the ground, and steam rose into the air. He was melting the ice, I realized as it quickly turned to water.

"What even is your quirk?" I breathed.

Todoroki got MVP, of course. No arguing that. "However," All Might added. "You also subjected Miss Ryuuzaki to the cold. Perhaps there was another way to succeed. Make sure you exhaust all possibilities to find the best options. Don't forget what your peers have to offer."

"Jeez," Kaminari said. "So far only the villains are getting MVPs."

"It's easy to be a villain," I said.

It didn't stay that way as the exercise continued. Once more, we stood in the monitor room to observe.

Todoroki looked at me as the next teams were strategizing. "How did you know where she was?"

I furrowed my brow, still a little irked at him. He was better than Bakugou, but I could tell he didn't play nice with others. "My quirk." I didn't explain any further just to annoy him.

By the time a few matches passed, I was starting to get a feel for everyone's quirks and names. There were some really impressive kids—except for Mineta. I wasn't sure how he got into the same hero course as Todoroki and Bakugou.

When the class finished, All Might went to go check on Midoriya, and I shot the blond another glance. He was really out of it, eyes down and silent. I would have thought he loved this kind of class, loser or not. And hell, I thought I would have enjoyed seeing him get knocked down a peg. Instead I felt the urge to go and talk to him.

I shook my head, deciding against it. He didn't respect me—not even as a rival. I'd just make him feel worse, and who knows who he would take that out on.

* * *

The bell rang, and Aizawa-sensei reminded us to take care of our cleanup duties before he high-tailed it out of the classroom. I had chalkboard duty, which wasn't that hard because it was only the second day.

"Woah, Bakugou—Where're you going?" Kirishima called.

I turned from wiping down the board. The blond was on his way out the door. "School's over—I'm leaving."

Ashido hopped up beside him. "Wait, you can't go yet. Aren't you going to wait and see Midoriya when he comes back?"

I shook my head at her from across the room. They didn't know yet what would set him off. The subject of Midoriya was sure to. Bakugou scoffed, enraging me.

"You need to apologize to him, Bakugou." I clenched my fists, dropping the erasures onto the teacher's desk. "You really hurt him this time. He's been in the nurse's all day."

He tilted his head back and glared. "Shut up, Chubby, I'll—" I blushed hard at the insult, realizing the whole class had heard.

"_Woah_," interjected Ashido. "Woah, woah, woah, you can't just call a girl _chubby_!"

"Did I seriously just hear that?" The punk girl, Jirou, scowled from the back of the room. She hopped up and crossed her arms. "Shove off it, Bakugou. And apologize to her, right now." Shocked, I watched as four or five of my new classmates, including Asui and Mineta, dropped what they were doing to chastise him. Where was this in elementary school!?

"That was just mean," Kaminari said. "And she's not even chubby!" He winked at me, and I wasn't sure if he was trying to make me feel better or if he was trying to flirt.

"Shut up, all of you!" Bakugou appeared genuinely surprised, but also defensive, and he slammed the door behind him. At least he didn't try to explode anyone.

I had never seen such a thing in all my life. I just watched my bully turn into public enemy number one.

"Yo, what's his problem?" Kirishima asked. I realized it was directed at me when he added, "You guys went to the same middle school, didn't you?"

I sighed. "Bakugou's always been this way. He's got a major complex of some kind." How else to describe him? Most of the people in my life just _knew _how he was.

The blond boy—Aoyama—hummed wisely at his desk. "Narcissistic personality disorder."

I laughed, which had probably been his goal. "Could be." The rest of the class seemed off-put, but my mood had suddenly improved as we went back to our tasks.

Moments later, the door slid back open. Midoriya padded into the classroom in a sling and two wrapped arms. He was swamped by his worried classmates, me included.

"Imagine the look on all of our middle school classmates' faces," I said when I had the chance. Midoriya laughed, then realized Bakugou wasn't in his seat. I rubbed the back of my neck. "You just missed him. It's probably for the best. He's not in a good mood."

He sighed. "That's exactly why I have to talk to him."

I furrowed my brow as he ran down the hall and out the building.

"Drama alert!" Uraraka cried from the window, practically pressing her face to the glass. "Midoriya and Bakugou have made contact outside."

The practical and non-nosy half of the class went back to work, some even packing up to leave already. Asui, Ashido, and I hopped next to Uraraka to watch.

"They're just talking?" I frowned.

"Bakugou looks like he wants to punch him, kero," Asui noticed. But he turned around and walked away.

"Childhood friends turned to enemies," Uraraka gushed. "How tragic."

I wanted to correct her, that they had never been friends, but I thought that would hurt Midoriya more than anything.

* * *

**Could Todoroki just freeze the entire building to stop Tooru? Absolutely. But I wanted to have Hotaru at least do something. **

**One of my favorite parts of the show was when Bakugou got behavior checked by the other 1-A students. It was great character development. Big fish in a small pond thrown into a big pond. I love it. He's such a dynamic character.**

**I want to thank F.B.100, loop2, Emocean, and YourHomeGirlJen for being wonderful people and reviewing. **


	6. Premonition

**Quick note because this has crossed my mind recently. I've gotten two comments (nothing bad!). One asked me to make sure I don't follow canon too closely, and the other asked that I don't let Hotaru turn into an OC in which the world revolves around them/the replace character's words and actions (ie, stunt their character development). These are both very, very, very fair points. If I don't change things up, why read it? It's just the show again. If she takes too much 'screen time' she's become a Mary sue. I don't want either of those things.**

**I think, though, that these two comments show the tricky balance I'm pressured into walking. And not just pressure from you guys, but pressure from myself. On the same note… I won't be able to please everybody. The last thing I want is to go through episode by episode, copying the dialogue from ear. It's hard enough finding the balance of change that I feel comfortable/satisfied with. And well, this is supposed to be fun, not stress me out.**

**Anyway, I'm not sure what I'm trying to say here. Thanks for reviewing and reading, of course. I love that you're invested enough to care for the fic's future, and to follow it and stuff. I guess my defense is that Hotaru is the POV character of the story, so her world DOES revolve around her. (You could argue it revolves around Deku, but this is a purposeful plot point/character development set up, and I'm more so talking about why it seems like she gets so much dialogue). (On another note, I've gotten comments (again, very fair and helpful!) both saying that she's too focused on Deku and not focused on him enough. So, I guess I just hope you guys see the pressure I'm kinda feeling). **

**I just wanted to get that off my chest before this chapter especially... In which I've tried to correct each one and therefore committed each sin the comments have warned about...**

**Enjoy?**

* * *

"Oh!" Inko Midoriya gasped when she saw me outside her door in my street clothes. "Ryuuzaki-chan. What are you doing here?"

I peered inside her house, hoping to catch sight of her son within the door. "Is Midoriya-kun home?" I'd been over before for study groups in middle school, but I wasn't there often. I would have been surprised his mom remembered me if we hadn't lived so close. My mom was kind of her friend.

"He's in his room. Come on in!" Inko smiled, gripping my hands kindly and leading me inside. "His bedroom is up the stairs and on the left there." She pointed. "You just go right on up."

I tried not to laugh, because it was quite trusting to just let a girl up in her son's room, but also because Midoriya was obviously not expecting me. "Are you sure you don't want to call him down? He never really liked people in his room."

Inko giggled. "He'll get over it." She waved me up. "Go on. He'll be surprised to see you."

Still, I knew better than to barge into a teenage boy's room. I knocked. The door swung open.

"Were you working out?" I asked, and I didn't know why I was surprised from the muscle he'd put on in less than a year.

Midoriya, his cheeks flushed and his athletic shirt damp, blinked. "Ho-Hotaru-chan?"

I beamed. "Can I come in?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, stuttering. Then he nodded. "Yeah. What's up?"

I stepped past him and immediately froze at the walls. His whole face turned red, and I couldn't help but grin. All Might was everywhere, from the everyday souvenirs that even I had to the rarer merch that must have cost all the allowance Midoriya had ever saved. It would have been easy to say something, but I left it at the knowing smile. He was so nerdy. It was kinda cute.

"A-anyway, go ahead and sit down." For a teenage boy, his room was also pretty clean, except for some stray laundry kicked under his bed. I knelt on the floor at a coffee table, glad I was wearing shorts instead of a skirt. Midoriya stayed standing. "Do you want a drink or something? We have juice pouches."

I waved him off. "You don't have to be so polite. It's just me."

I waited until he found the spot across from me to start, and by then my smile had faded to worry. "How're your arms?"

He glanced down, where both of his arms were bandaged from wrist to shoulder. He looked like he'd just gotten released from the hospital.

Had Deku's path to herodom always been this dangerous? How long was he going to keep breaking his arms to follow his pipe-dream? Before that distant future became a reality. Then why was I even here, living this life?

I was almost expecting a platitude, but instead his fist tightened. "If I were stronger, this wouldn't have happened."

I frowned. "You mean because your quirk hurts you."

He looked away as if he was ashamed and nodded.

"I can't believe Bakugou did that to you," I seethed. "Who am I kidding? No I'm not."

"I think he was hurt," Midoriya sighed. "This whole time he thought I was tricking him."

"He couldn't have asked you?" I cleared my throat, realizing I had been close to yelling. "I didn't come here to talk about him. I actually wanted to talk about your quirk—you can't train because of it, but you can't control your quirk until you can train," I said. "It's essentially a catch 22."

"Yeah."

Guess I didn't need to remind him of what he already knew. Now I'd gone and gotten his mood down. But, well, why else was I here?

"My quirk is similar, in a way."

He perked up at that to listen.

I leaned back onto my hands. "I needed to train with another person to build up the karmic energy, but sparring with someone would just hurt them."

"I'm sure." he nodded. "You've got such a cool quirk."

I found myself blushing at the genuine compliment. No one but Midoriya would ever or had ever said that to me, except maybe my dad.

"Anyway—" I cleared my throat. "It was tricky to get past that first milestone, where I could hold in the blasts so that my parents didn't get hurt. And I guess you could say I have some experience in the department of tricky training solutions."

He stared at me until the words sunk in. Then slowly his face lit up. "You have an idea."

I shrugged, hoping I hadn't gotten his hopes up for no reason. "Well, I don't know exactly how your quirk works. Could you explain it to me?" I only knew the end product of insane speed and strength, but that was hardly what made him the number one hero in another world. His control and combat skills were out of this world when he was an adult.

"I—" He looked away again. "I don't know how much I can tell you."

I frowned and brushed him off. "Don't worry about it, then. But to stop beating around the bush, here's my idea—visualization training. My dad did a lot of research on hero techniques, and that was one of the main recommendations for quirks that you can't get out to practice right away."

He tested the word in his mouth, his brow furrowed because, yeah, that was vague. "Do you mean _imagine_ myself using my quirk over and over?"

I nodded. "Characterize your power. When I feel the energy in my cells, I like to picture a power bar filling up. It helps me keep what would usually spill over inside."

He started nodding slowly, like he was warming up to the idea. "Okay, I'll give that a try."

I smiled. "For my sake, I'm sure." I waved off his denial. There was something else itching at my skin, and I couldn't _not _ask anymore. "By the way—what did you and Bakugou talk about?"

To that, he wouldn't tell me.

* * *

"Ryuuzaki—" I looked up from my desk, shoving my books into my backpack as Ashido bounded up to my desk. "Yo, Uraraka and I thought about having a get-together with all the girls in class. Are you free tonight?"

I grinned, hefting my bag over my shoulder. "I can make myself free. What time were you thinking?"

"Awesome! We know it's late notice, but we figured tonight would be perfect because we didn't get any homework. Meet outside Mariko station at five?"

I told her I'd be there, and hurried home so I didn't have to skip out on training. With that done, I put on a yellow sundress and a matching hair ribbon around my bun.

"Where are you headed?" Mom caught me before I rushed out the door. "So cute. Do you have a date?"

I blushed hard. "Mom, ew, no—"

She laughed. My dad peeked his head around the corner.

"Did you just say, 'date'?"

"I'm hanging out with my new classmates. Just the girls," I added when Mom started smirking. I knew she just wanted to embarrass me. But it worked.

My cheeks didn't cool down until I got to the first station. My destination was close, the second stop from my home station headed north. I boarded with the crowd, clutching my bag to my stomach to make as much room as possible. It wasn't as full as it could have been, but considering it was before most adults got off of work, I was surprised to see the car so cramped. Without so much as a creak, the doors shut behind us, sealing us in, and we started moving.

Then I saw familiar blond hair peeking through the crowd. _Bakugou?_ Outside of school, he wore a black T-shirt and baggy jeans. I hadn't seen him in street clothes since elementary, since I usually tried to avoid him. I saw him and Midoriya on the train quite often since we lived in the same area, but usually on the way to school. It was a Thursday night. I was surprised his mom let him out.

I peered at his face through the corner of my eye, lest he spot me. Ever since the day Midoroya beat him, he'd been uncannily quiet in class. Right now, he looked pretty annoyed at the guy beside him who kept swaying into his shoulder. Annoyed, but not ready to blow up at him.

Well, as long as we didn't try to talk to each other, it wasn't like I could get on his nerves from the other side of the train car.

And then a wave of pain shot up my abdomen. It was so out of the blue that I swayed in place, my muscles contracting.

A premonition right now? But the train was moving so quickly, my cells shouldn't have the wherewithal to pick up on the energy as I traveled. Distance and personalness all played a role. I was more likely to pick up on energy directed at me, but not across a city. Which meant the problem was on the train.

It was a little cramped as I checked my surroundings. Nothing looked out of place, although there wasn't a whole lot for me to see with all the bodies in my way. The pain wasn't subsiding

_Wait it out?_

_Nope._

Well, what was I supposed to do with that? I grew more desperate the more I looked around and nothing stood out. The people next to me noticed my panicking, but since nothing seemed amiss, they quickly dismissed me. It was better that way. If I told them something bad was about to happen, it might cause a panic.

My stomach tightened more and more, and I stumbled into someone beside me and then the side of the train, less from the pain and more from my muscles refusing to work.

A hand grabbed my shoulder and I almost screamed.

"Oi." I craned my neck to see Bakugou fighting his way through the passengers. There was just enough room for him to break into the same space as me, and then both our backs were to the wall.

Shocked, I almost didn't hear his words when he leaned closer so only I could hear.

"Something coming?"

I nodded, finding the strength to straighten my spine a little. "Whatever it is, I can't find it."

Then his eyes narrowed and his head shot up. "Are we going to crash?"

I shook my head. "The karmic energy would have alerted me as soon as I stepped foot on the train."

"Shit," he sighed. "Guess we'll have to search." He peered out across the passengers as if looking for a place to start.

"Split up?" I suggested. It was an understatement to say that I couldn't believe he wanted to help. But I guess he _did _want to be a hero. I was just the first one in line to question his motives.

He was quiet for a moment. "No, we don't know what we're dealing with. And _I _wouldn't be able to tell if I found anything." He frowned, back to the death glare I was accustomed to. "What are you looking at?"

_And here I was thinking something was wrong with him. _I realized I had been staring at him like he had turned into a purple dragon, so I was basically asking him to get mad. But he was right. He didn't have premonition predicting events and actions before they occurred.

Then the pain stopped.

"Um," I said, finally able to stand straight. "The energy's gone." And great, now I couldn't use my quirk to get to the bottom of it all.

Bakugou gave me the most annoyed look, his eye twitching.

"What?" I said. "I can't control it. The event must have been diverted somehow."

I could tell he was trying not to blow up. Probably literally. "What kind of stupid quirk is that?" Several heads turned at his yelling, even though it was quiet for Bakugou.

I stuck a finger to my lip. "Can you yell at me another time? We're on a _train_." Social faux pas in Japan; disturbing people on the shinkansen. You couldn't even talk on the phone without becoming public enemy number one. I wouldn't be surprised if you were labeled a villian for going over 80 decibels.

This pissed him off even more, but he managed to bite his tongue.

"Anyway," I whispered, then hesitated. I had been about to thank him. For what, coming to check on me? That's not what he was doing. Besides, I thought back to the hero/villian challenge. This was _Bakugou, _the kid who terrorized my elementary and middle school, who beat my classmate to a pulp practically because he looked at him funny.

Besides, he wasn't even listening to me. I couldn't tell if he was sulking or not, but he was staring on the far end of the train. I craned my neck to see what he saw, but I was too short to see over a row of men in the middle of the car.

"My quirk relies on people's intent and actions and how those bring upon events," I said, contemplatively. "So if someone intended to rob me, but then saw you walk up…" I shrugged. "You might have deterred them already." Quickly, I added, "You can be really intimidating sometimes." As if the compliment, if you could call it that, would placate him.

"Whatever," he said.

It wasn't another minute when the train stopped at Mariko station. Awkwardly, I shuffled to the door with the crowd. When I glanced over, though, so was Bakugou.

I frowned. "This is your stop, too?"

He answered with a 'tch' that told me he didn't want to get into it. Fair enough. Not my business. But it got even stranger when we took the same left, further into the station instead of town. I didn't say anything lest I make it awkward. Besides, he was enough steps behind me, hands in his pockets, that I wasn't even sure he was walking with me. He definitely seemed more interested in the wall as we passed.

Soon I saw a floating outfit: pink shorts, a frilly blouse, and strappy sandals. "Hagakure-chan," I greeted, jogging up to her. Asui, Uraraka, Yaoyorozu, and Jirou were there as well, closer to the wall.

"There you are, Ryuuzaki-chan, kero."

The other girls waved and smiled.

"We're only waiting on Ashido, now," Yoayorozu said.

"She went ahead to rent a karaoke room," Jirou explained.

"Oh, fun!" I smiled. Karaoke wasn't nearly as fun without booze, I somehow knew, but I was still looking forward to it.

I turned then, and saw Bakugou stalking back the way we had come, his hands in his pockets.

What was that about?

* * *

"You've got to be kidding me," Bakugou groaned as we turned the corner—Midoriya and I weren't purposely walking to school with him, but we had once again gotten on the same train to the same station. It was an accident. If it was anyone's fault, it was Bakugou's because he didn't take the early train like he usually did.

I peered around UA's brick gate, frowning. "The press heard All Might was faculty, huh?"

"This is gonna be a pain."

Midoriya frowned. "There's no other way in because of the gate." UA had crazy security and had also built a huge brick wall around the whole of campus.

I hefted my bag over my shoulder, shrugging. "Keep your heads down and keep walking." Bakugou had already started toward the entrance. Luckily there was already a flow of students and the press was more or less letting us through—until they recognized Bakugou from the slime monster incident. Midoriya and I used his threats of violence as a distraction to dash inside. I would have loved to be on TV, but I could wait until I was a real hero.

Bakugou barely made it before the bell, just in time for Aizawa-sensei to announce it was time to determine class representatives. Iida suggested a vote, and with all the students raising their hands to volunteer, the methodology was hard to argue. Even Bakugou wanted the job.

I thought about it—I in no way wanted to be a class rep. It was a lot of work, and while it came with perks, my mission wasn't to make sure I had the most job offers after graduation. My mission was Midoriya—which was why I cast my vote for him. Anyone with two votes would be sitting pretty, I figured, since most of the class would vote for themselves.

"Woah," Kirishima gasped. "Midoriya got four votes?"

I peeked over at Bakugou to see if he was plotting murder. He did look annoyed, especially at Midoriya, but I was surprised to see him behaving for the most part. He must have known he wouldn't fare well in an election. Time to prepare himself for defeat, I guessed.

Otherwise, it was pretty easy to see who had voted for who; if you had zero votes, you didn't vote for yourself, so you either voted for Yaoyorozu (Jirou, if I had to guess) or Midoriya. Iida and Uraraka were the other two with zero. I guess I wasn't that surprised, except for that it was pretty obvious Iida really wanted the job.

The process filled up our time until lunch.

When I stood with my food, looking for somewhere to sit, Asui motioned me over. I sat next to her and Tokoyami, who ate his rice quietly.

"You didn't want to be the class-rep, Ryuuzaki-chan?" Asui slurped her soup. "You didn't vote for yourself."

I took a sip of my juice. If UA got one thing right, it was the food. "Sounded boring." I shrugged.

"That's true, kero. I'd be worried about the responsibility."

I laughed. "Really, Asui-chan? I think you would have been just fine."

She blushed at the compliment. "Please, call me Tsu-chan. But thanks."

"So," I turned to Tokoyami, feeling chatty. "What do you guys think we'll be doing in the hero course next?"

The birdman hummed. "I think we'll break away from the testing."

Asui nodded. "We've been testing a lot, kero. I think it's so they can see where we are at the start."

"That makes sense," I took a bite of egg. "Can't expect us to swim when we don't yet know how to crawl."

"They can expect me to swim, kero."

I laughed, and even Tokoyami chuckled.

Then I felt the briefest tug in my gut, the softest pull I'd ever experienced. So subtle, I wasn't sure if I'd imagined it or not, until the school's sirens went off and all hell broke loose.

* * *

"That was—" I started, not sure what word I was looking for exactly.

"Fucking ridiculous?"

Kirishima had at some point joined me, Asui, and Tokoyami when the crowd of students had freaked out. A bunch of heroes-in-training, and they had almost smothered me and the other first-years. It was a little off putting how quick they were to panic. Thankfully, Iida had learned to fly and got everyone's attention. Turns out it was just the press.

Uraraka had such a cool quirk.

I was once again grateful for my training with my parents. I was just about at my threshold, but I'd managed to hold in the karma from being knocked around in what was essentially a mosh pit. It could have been bad.

Not that it was great. When Karma didn't shoot, I was left to absorb the damage. So my whole body was covered in bruises.

Asui had a big one on her cheek from when some second-year accidentally elbowed her.

"Let's head to the nurses," I offered. "That looks like it hurts." The two boys waved us off and headed back to the homeroom.

We came to class late, though with a note and a bandaged Asui to prove we'd had nothing but the purest of intentions.

Aizawa-sensei was tucked in the corner in his sleeping bag, asleep, so I stuck the note onto his forehead.

"What did we miss?" I hustled to my desk, whispering to Uraraka, who had the seat on my right.

She leaned over her desk. "Midoriya resigned as class-rep, and Iida took his place."

"Eh?" I was surprised. Midoriya had seemed to have wanted the job. He had even voted for himself. "Shouldn't we revote?" I frowned. I would rather have had Yaomomo as the class rep, since Iida went a little overboard sometimes. I'd sat on top of my desk for two seconds to tie my shoe and he yelled at me and called me a degenerate.

Uraraka shrugged. "It just sort of happened. I think people were impressed with how he whipped everyone in shape today."

"Sure," I conceded. "He did good. So why's Aizawa-sensei still taking a nap?"

* * *

Later that week, the hero course was scheduled to take a field trip to an off-campus training facility, but Aiwzawa-sensei didn't tell us what we'd be training for until the day of.

"We'll be focusing on rescue missions for natural disasters," he explained, opening our uniform lockers. "Me, All Might, and another pro hero will be monitoring."

In the islands of Japan, natural disasters were often more prevalent than villains. The class was excited. As early as it was in the school year, all of our hero training was pretty novel.

Once I was geared up, I joined the others onto the bus, sitting next to Asui. I was comfortable with her. I hope she didn't find me annoying, because I was still too shy to sit with anyone else. We'd bonded during karaoke when we both realized the two of us had the least musical talent. She had an excuse, as her quirk made her sound like she had a frog in her throat. I didn't.

"By the way, Midoriya," Asui started. "I've been meaning to ask, kero. Isn't your quirk oddly similar to All Might's?"

I wouldn't have thought much of the question until Midoriya started to stammer.

_What did that mean? _

"Uh, Thanks, Tsu-chan," he rubbed his neck. "That's flattering. But I don't think they're that similar…"

My eyes narrowed. Yeah, they were, Midoriya, but power quirks were all over the country. Except his quirk wasn't just power, I knew. It was that speed that he used to save me, the ability to be there in an instant and protect everyone. But why wasn't All Might's number one fan playing up the similarities?

What was I even thinking? People could have similar quirks. It didn't mean anything.

Kirishima sighed beside me. "I'd love to have an augmentation quirk like that. You're gonna be a really popular hero." He brandished his arm, showing off his hardening. "I mean, mine is useful, but it doesn't look all that cool."

Midoriya smiled. "I don't know, it's a pretty good hero quirk in my opinion."

"You think?" He retracted his mutated cells.

"Yeah. My quirk practically just gives me stomach aches," I agreed.

"If anyone has a hero quirk," Kirishima said, blushing, "it would be Todoroki and Bakugou."

Which was true, even if I didn't want it to be. I tried not to look too annoyed at the comment but couldn't quite wipe the distaste from my face.

"Sorry," Kirishima added sheepishly.

"Sure," Asui said, "but Bakugou's always angry, so he'll never be that popular."

I couldn't help myself from throwing my head back and giggling, because I hadn't expected it from Asui.

Bakugou stood in his seat, fuming and apparently able to hear us the entire time. "What did you just say? I'll kick your ass!"

Asui shrugged. "You see?" Yeah, he was pretty much proving her point. I clapped my hand over my mouth, realizing he heard what I had been laughing at. I was worried the next time we did match-ups he'd remember that laugh.

Then even Kaminari chimed in, talking right to the blond. "It's kind of telling that we just met you but already know you have a shit personality." He said it light-heartedly, but it was hard for Bakugou to take anything lightly.

As I thought he would, Bakugou turned on him instead and the two threw insults at each other.

I shared a glance with Midoriya, acknowledging how wild this situation was. Katsuki Bakugou was the one being teased, not Nerdy Deku or Chubby Ryuuzaki. High school really was a different world.

Hey, shouldn't I believe in Karma? That Bakugou was finally getting what was coming to him?

Then I thought back to the train the other day, and a part of me kind of felt bad. A small part.

"By the way," I turned to Midoriya, covering my hand with my mouth. "How's the training going?"

From the bleak look that followed, it couldn't have been going well.

The boys didn't calm down until Aizawa-sensei finally shouted at them to shut up. They would have had to stop anyway, because the bus slowed outside a giant dome facility.

We marched inside eagerly and were greeted by a figure in a space suit, who we all knew as the pro hero Thirteen, a rescue specialist. The facility was equally as impressive, at almost the size of a theme park. Instead of attractions, there were every natural environment you could think of.

"How does UA have the funding?" I breathed.

"Hey," Midoriya nudged me. "Do you see All Might? I thought he was coming."

I frowned. "No, but Aizawa-sensei did say…"

Speaking of, I saw our teacher having a hushed conversation with Thirteen.

"I'm sure he's on his way," I told Midoriya. Then my stomach clenched so hard that I lost my breath. I stumbled, Midoriya catching me and keeping me on my feet.

"You okay?" he asked in my ear.

I nodded. But. My classmates looked concerned, or they hadn't noticed.

Aizawa-sensei was suddenly at my other side.

"What's wrong?" As a pro, he was the perfect balance of urgent and calm.

"Something's coming." I winced. "Something big."

* * *

**Got any theories from the train scene? :)**

**During lunch, premonition reacts because, as it is heavily implied, Shiragaki let the press in. The action itself was one of ill intent that indirectly affects Hotaru, but he wasn't expecting it to actually hurt anyone, so it is a tiny reaction. Because it was small, she forgets about it. **

**Kurogiri's portals have the advantage over premonition because of the distance they utilize. So she didn't get a shot of the karmic energy until the portals connected to USJ. **


	7. The Incident at USJ Pt 1

**I'm sorry it took so long to update. I actually had it done for months with the intention of writing more to it, then thought I would just get what I had out and start over fresh from there.**

* * *

"We should evacuate," I pleaded to Aizawa-sensei. I was finally growing accustomed to the tugging in my gut, enough that I could stand and move. But there was no mistaking what my quirk was telling me.

_Get out of here._

Aizawa-sensei watched my face, then looked at the rest of the class, who were either watching with concern or confusion. Bakugou narrowed his eyes.

Sensei leaned in so only Midoriya and I could hear. "I've read your file, Ryuuzaki. You're having a premonition, right?"

I nodded. "My quirk can feel the karmic energy put into the universe. Right now, someone's done or thought something that will bring us harm if we don't leave."

Sensei frowned. "What are the chances this will resolve itself if we continue carefully?"

I fidgeted and looked away, thinking back to the other day on the train. I'd been pretty sure something big was about to happen, and then it all went away within a moment. Embarrassingly. Maybe I was overreacting again? It would be so shitty of me to ruin everyone's training just because my quirk did what it did to me my whole life.

"My premonitions don't tell me much, and they don't read any solid future, so it's hard to say."

Aizawa-sensei sighed. "Alright, we'll err on the side of caution." He raised his voice. "Everyone, back to the buses."

"What's going on?" Ashido asked. "We just got here."

"Yeah, we're heroes-in-training, right? What could be the worst to happen?" Kirishima piped up.

Nonetheless, the class moved to leave the facility. Thirteen lead from the back, motioning for the class to keep moving.

"We'll return for the rescue training when we're sure it's safe. You kids are my responsibility, and that's my decision. Kaminari, you contact the main campus. Let them know we're on our way back."

"Yes, sir," he said, hesitantly. It was clear he was disappointed. _Way to go, Hotaru. _But the tugging was incessant, unforgiving, and I knew it had to be done.

"It's her quirk," Midoriya explained at my side to our confused classmates, making sure a new wave of energy didn't knock me off my feet as we filed out of the doors again. "It has a predictability aspect."

"That's kind of concerning." Sero frowned. "So something bad would've happened if we didn't leave?"

I was going to correct him, to explain that as long as my stomach hurt, the event hadn't been averted yet, even if half the class was already on the bus. I waited patiently in line to climb aboard, my pace slowed as I hunched over.

But then Kaminari peeked his head out of the bus window. "Hey, guys? I can't get a hold of anyone back at the school. I think something's blocking the signal."

Then black swirled underneath us and the bus, and I gasped as my stomach practically flipped. The dark tendrils materialized and curled up from nothing, rising between me, some of the others, and the bus.

Aizawa-sensei used his wrappings to gather the kids who hadn't made it—Midoriya, Kirishima, Yaoyorozu, Sero, Bakugou, and me—and yanked us back behind him. I went weightless, then landed on my feet with a jolt, but was thankful that he had been able to react.

A voice drifted over us, but it had no body to go with it. "That's no good. You kids are supposed to be _inside_."

The black expanded, engulfing the bus, then it seemed to fizzle out.

"Sensei!" I realized he'd flicked his goggles over his eyes, using his quirk to stop the mysterious power.

"Thirteen, the bus," he shouted, barked, ordered. "You six, stay back."

Thirteen pushed onto the bus, turning the key in the engine and not even bothering to close the door. "Everyone sit down!" The bus shot forward, removing it from the quirk that had been targeting it.

"What's going on?"

"What the hell is that?"

The kids who were on the bus couldn't see what was going on as we could. I saw some of them trying to stick their heads out of the window, Iida pulling them back by their shoulders.

"Stay clear of the windows!" No one knew what that black stuff could do. It was best not to find out by losing a head.

The fog whirled and grew until a figure was standing in its place. He must have been heteromorphic, made from the smoke, since it could move with Sensei staring at it. He could move his body, but not his quirk beyond that.

"Eraserhead," that voice said. "How inconvenient. Where's All Might?"

Beside me, Midoriya shot me a look. Guess we knew this guy's target. But him not keeping a secret about it was concerning in its own right. And why would he be attacking us if All Might wasn't even here? Were we supposed to be hostages?

Sensei tensed. "Get down!" His tape, which had never released us, threw the six of us onto our backs and stomachs as bullets fired around us. I craned my neck to see new people I didn't recognize at the door of the USJ. They fired with gun quirks, clearly aiming at us kids. Shots pounded the side of the bus as well, narrowly piercing through the metal.

"Villains!" Yaoyorozu gasped. She was right—But how had they gotten inside the training facility when one, it was heavily guarded, and two, we'd just been in there and the whole place had seemed empty. The firing didn't stop. Glass shattered, kids shouted. The bus wasn't safe cover anymore.

"Shit," Sensei swore, and I knew he was making a choice. As quickly as he could, he directed his quirk to the villains at the door. The bullets stopped.

The smoke figure immediately ushered his quirk at the opportunity, reaching both toward the bus and us kids. The black screened my vision and I lost sight of even Midoriya, who was barely even a foot away.

"Back in we go," the figure said.

And then I felt the ground disappear beneath me.

* * *

I hit the dirt hard, willing my own quirk into suppression so I didn't explode on the impact. Between that and the cafeteria panic the other day, I was close to spilling.

I sat up with a grunt, realizing I wasn't alone at the sound of more groans. The six of us that had been swarmed together had been split up—Sero, Yaomomo, and Midoriya were nowhere to be seen. But Kirishima and Bakugou had landed a few feet away, covered in dust. Even Bakugou hadn't landed on his feet, leaning on his elbows. He was fuming.

"Where are we?" I asked, hoping one of them had a better idea than I did. We were surrounded by dirt and hills taller than buildings. It was difficult to orient myself. But we'd obviously been removed from the chaos of the fight outside the training facility. What was it called when the lack of sound sent a pregnant message? Loud quiet? Deafening silence?

"Looks like we're back inside the USJ," Kirishima said. "I saw this place from the entrance. I think this is the mountain zone."

I frowned. My stomach was still spasming, but I was more or less used to it now, like jumping into cold water. "I'm worried about the others." We hadn't seen if the smoke had gotten to the bus before Aizawa-sensei could nullify his quirk again. Hell, I didn't even know if we were safe ourselves, as quiet as it was. At least we weren't riddled with bullets.

This incident wasn't ringing any bells from my old memories, which were more or less just vague facts focused around Deku and my deaths. This was _UA grounds_. No one would be so bold to attack students here. It was suicide. I had brief memories of a league, an entity, working against Deku, even if they ascribed to the same idea of herodom. Members and numbers and goals were blurry. But surely they'd never gotten close to the 1-A class on _school property_. It was unthinkable. And yet, I had just seen it go down with my own eyes.

"This isn't a test, is it?" I frowned.

Kirishima rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't think so. We were pretty close to getting shot."

I stood and dusted off my costume, frowning in contemplation. I shouldn't have picked white for my tights and gloves. They were already caked in red-tinted dust.

"Okay. An unknown number of villains are in the facility with us. Their target is All Might, but we're collateral. One of them has a warp-type quirk, and they've purposely separated us from Aizawa-sensei and Thirteen." I was mostly speaking to myself, but Kirishima at least seemed to be listening to my assessment. I nodded. "I'm guessing to pick us off one by one. So we undo that and find Sensei. Make it easier for them to protect us."

"No one's gonna be protecting me," Bakugou scoffed. "I'll take care of every last villain in the damn place." He rolled his shoulders.

"I like your confidence," Kirishima laughed, and I wondered if he thought Bakugou was joking. I knew better. He was pissed he hadn't gotten the chance to jump at the warp guy. He'd both gone after us and dismissed us, more interested in Sensei and All Might. It was an unforgivable slight.

Bakugou looked like he was about to strangle something, then he smirked violently. "You two will get in everyone's way. What we _should _do is wait here for the villains to come to us, then beat the crap out of as many of them as possible." His hands were popping with leakage of his quirk, raring to fight.

As much as I hated to admit it, he had a point. It already happened that Aizawa-sensei was in a tight spot trying to fight _and _protect us. Seeking him out would put all of us at risk.

My stomach pulled in a different direction, and I dropped into a whisper. "Villains are coming." As quiet as I was, I couldn't keep a slight tremor from my voice.

We dropped into defensive stances, backs together to cover and blindspots. I had a retractable staff in my tool belt, courtesy UA's gear request. I felt a lot better with it in my hands, even if I didn't exactly know how to use it.

They taught us how to play softball in elementary. It would have to be enough.

This wasn't going to be like sparring my dad. These guys actually wanted to hurt me. Hurt _us_. I felt a little cold.

"Guess there's no sneaking up on you kids," a man in a bandana said, stepping from around the foot of a hill. I would have guessed he was listening in on us, if my quirk would have been different. So he didn't know we fully intended to fight, not run.

I tightened my formation with the boys, stepping closer, only for Bakugou to charge.

"Wait!" I cried. We didn't know his quirk. It would be stupid to attack head-on.

But Bakugou wasn't like me. His quirk was inherently heroic, inherently useful. He blew up in the guy's face, making a smokescreen. I heard a crack and a groan, and some sort of purple slime landed on my goggles.

I wiped it off, making a face, and by the time the smoke cleared, the villain was clearly out of it.

"Oi, nice one, Bakugou!" Kirishima chuckled. His skin was hardened already, ready to jump in. "You showed him!"

"Better keep showing them," I murmured, eyes shooting along the divots made by the mountainous terrain. "He wasn't alone."

* * *

**Aizawa looked to the shooters because it was either he let them get taken back into the USJ or let them get shot**—**in case that part led to any confusion. **

**Sorry this chapter was so short. I really wanted to get something out. The next will be longer!**

**I would love to see what you think about what's been changed for this attack. What do you think is going to go differently?**

**Thanks!**


	8. The Incident at USJ Pt 2

**Let's see if this works this time. Sorry if you got a whole bunch of notifications from me. The site wasn't working.**

* * *

"Heads up—"

I had the wherewithal to duck, Kirishima shouting a warning alongside the lurch of my quirk. A tail swung over my head, brushing my hair, and then from the other side a hardened fist punched it away.

"Thanks," I panted, leaping closer to my classmate. Kirishima's hardening certainly came in handy for defense, which I severely lacked. He made no complaint when I stuck close by. We were surrounded, three sides by villains and one side a mountain. For every bad guy we knocked down, another popped up in their place. The swing of my staff turned less and less hesitant and more 'with-my-back-in-it'. In any other situation, the broken teeth and jaws I'd inflicted over the last few minutes would have put me in jail. But it was all I could do to defend myself.

"Had enough?" A few feet away, someone hollered like an adrenaline junkie.

Bakugou, at least, seemed to be enjoying himself, his face split in a grin. He was making quick work of the villains, taking advantage of the open space by distancing himself from Kirishima and me and making large explosions. It wiped them out by the handful and created cover at the same time. If this was another simulation, Bakugou would be the MVP.

I yelped when a claw nearly swiped my head off. If these guys wanted us alive as hostages, they weren't acting like it. Off-balance, I darted into the cloud Bakugou's smokescreen. The villain kept at it, pursuing me until we were both consumed in dust, and I used my staff to block her. She was using her nose to locate me, and I was using my karmic sense. My timing won out. I dodged her claws easily but desperately, then I whacked her on the head. I heard her drop to the ground as the smoke dissipated. She didn't so much as twitch after that.

Kirishima braced his arms against a pair of throwing knives, teeth gritted, sliding into me. We pressed back to back. I was pretty sure, by the quick tug and release in my gut, that they had been aimed at me. There was so much going on around me that my premonitions were getting slow and muddy, and I was struggling to keep my head above water.

"I got your back," he said, noticing my uneasy expression. He grinned in reassurance, showing his pointed teeth.

It dawned on me then that, since I was clearly the weak link with little defense and little offense, most of the villains had resorted to targeting me. Bakugou? They were trying to get away from Bakugou. He aggressively knocked down the adults in his path, pursuing them instead of avoiding them like I was. Kirishima was easy to come upon but not so easy to hurt (_don't use the k-word, don't use the k-word_—_)_

But they had the advantage of numbers, and Bakugou couldn't get them all. I eeped and threw up my staff, blocking an incoming bat. A stretchy arm shot out from the smoke and wrapped around my middle before I could—

The villain shrieked and recoiled as Bakugou shot in from nowhere, fisted her limb, and yanked his gauntlet. Her arm lit it ablaze with one quick but unnecessarily large flash.

"Come on, freaks, let's do this!" He grinned maniacally, crouching. "Unless you're scared."

"You alright, Ryuuzaki?" Kirishima's face was grimy with dirt and sweat, which dripped off his hardened skin.

I nodded through my panting. I wasn't going to last. It was like the villains were endless. I lost count of how many we knocked out and how many were still trying to get at us. All I could do was swing my staff and kick and dodge and try to catch my ragged breath. I didn't have time to think. There were just so many of them.

And then there weren't. I landed a particularly vicious jab right at a villain's orbital bone, my hands too numb to tell if anything cracked beneath it. But they dropped to the ground, and I swung around looking for the next. There were only three left, I realized, and they turned to run as soon as they realized it, too.

"I don't think so!" Bakugou growled and shot off after them. In one flip, he managed to take all three of them down.

Kirishima broke into a grin. "Alright, man! That was awesome!"

The blood was still rushing in my ears and I more so read his lips than heard him. I lowered my staff, stunned, my arms noodles. "Did we do it?"

"Piece of cake," Bakugou huffed. He clapped his hands to knock dust from his gloves and gauntlets. "They were a bunch of weaklings."

"Midoriya and the others might still be in the USJ." Kirishima deactivated his quirk, rolling out his shoulders. He'd done just as much swinging as I had. "We've got to help them."

Bakugou scoffed. "Be my guest and try to find them in this place. I'm gonna go find that smoke creep."

Kirishima looked at me like he hadn't heard him right, then back at Bakugou. "What if they need our help?"

"If they can't handle those low-class criminals, then I say survival of the fittest."

He didn't so much as spare a glance at me, but for some reason, I felt called out. I bit my lip. "The smoke villain is probably with Sensei. Weren't you the one who said we shouldn't try to get in his way?"

He scowled, clenching his jaw. "Now that we've taken down their army, I've got a score to settle."

Bakugou didn't like to do anything against his will. The smoke villain had swooped in too quickly for any of us to react and essentially used us as hostages. I'm sure it was a sore spot for him.

I took a shaky breath and wiped my forehead with the back of my hand. I wasn't sure why I was still so out of it. This must be what shock feels like. Nothing could have prepared me for what just happened. Not one month of school. Not four years. I thought the banter would help settle me, but the dread that had built up in my gut was still there.

I froze, halfway done with retracting my staff.

During the battle, premonition had been going haywire, firing so quickly and incessantly that I had no choice but to ignore it. It was that or get hurt as I tried to figure out what it was telling me. It had been so overwhelming in the chaos of battle that it was mostly useless. But now the threats were gone.

Kirishima was facing Bakugou, his back to me. I scanned our surroundings. There was no one else there.

My stomach lurched.

I moved without really thinking. Bakugou had just enough time to register shock on his face as I dropped my staff and barreled into Kirihshima's side.

"Woah!"

Metal whistled by my cheek and then I landed on top of Kirishima.

"Ryuuzaki?" He asked in my ear, and I craned my neck to check behind us. There was nothing there.

Yet a voice chuckled. "My, how lucky." I flinched—it came from right above me.

I scrambled to the side so Kirishima could move. He had already reactivated his quirk. "What's going on?"

I didn't have time to answer, only to brace my arms up as the karmic energy swelled. My body was too dead and the villain was too quick for us, and we weren't fast enough to get off the ground.

A knife, I realized. He had a knife, and I couldn't do shit against those. Kirishima saw me throw my arms up and flung his body over mine.

"Not quite." Bakugou was before us, then, smirking and clasping onto open air. He blew it up.

The villain screamed, and then materialized, unconscious. He looked like a chameleon. Bakugou tossed him aside and he landed in a heap.

"An invisibility quirk," I managed around the heart in my throat.

"Nah," Bakugou scoffed. "His body just mimicked his surroundings. He was easy enough to see." He wiped a purple juice onto his pants.

Because Kirishima was much more knife-proof than I was, I wasn't sure how much Bakugou had actually saved us. And he didn't have to brag about seeing the villain. All I knew, in that moment, was that I was so grateful that his cockiness didn't get under my skin like it usually did.

I flinched when Kirishima grabbed me by the shoulders and gave a little shake. Clearly I was a little out of it. "Are you hurt, Ryuuzaki?"

"N—no." I shook my head.

Kirishima blinked and peered at my face. Then he lifted a finger to my cheek. It felt like a rock. "You're bleeding!"

I didn't feel a cut or any pain. But sure enough, there was blood dribbling down his knuckle.

"It doesn't hurt," I said, feeling my cheekbone tentatively. Okay, touching it kind of hurt. The villain must have nicked me on our way to the ground. "It's just a scratch, I think."

"Here," Kirishima dug into one of the packs strapped to his legs. "I've got a medkit in my supplies. Let me clean that up for you."

"Thanks," I muttered, shifting to my bottom and hugging my knees. It helped with the shaking. Kirishima touched a cloth to my cut and it stung. It smelled like antiseptic.

I glanced over and saw Bakugou walking away.

"You're not going to wait?" I frowned.

He glanced back at me, who was sitting in the dust and getting medical treatment from an inch-wide scratch. But I was actually talking more about Kirishima, and by the slide of his gaze, I knew he figured as much.

"I'm not slowing down for anyone. If you're coming, you better catch up." He turned back around.

Kirishima furrowed his brow. "Woah, man, hold up!" He slapped a bandage onto my cheek, a little too hard, and scrambled to his feet to follow him.

Mouth stiff, I took my time standing, watching them march to the top of a hill.

"You know," I called when they were a good distance away. "If you're looking for the entrance, you're heading the wrong way." I pointed behind us.

* * *

**This is a shorter chapter, but I wanted to get an update out. Most of this has been sitting in my folders as I told myself to keep adding another 1500 words, and it wasn't happening. **

**Some explanations because I don't trust myself to portray the information clearly. The K-word is kill and she didn't want to have a mental breakdown by thinking about how she or Kirishima might die. Hotaru couldn't use her quirk because fighting with her staff absorbs most of the karmic damage, plus things were going too quickly, and there were too many of them. And that's all I can think of. **

**Thanks for reading. I would love to hear your thoughts.**


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